Committee OKs more disaster relief funds

Communities hit hard during summer 2014 storms would see more disaster relief assistance under a bill the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee approved Monday.

Sponsored by Rep. Tony Albright (R-Prior Lake), HF748 would appropriate $23.5 million for repairs and improvements related to severe storms that struck in June and July of last year, causing flooding and landslides.

Rep. Tony Albright

“It was devastation” to many washed-out road and rail beds, hillsides and beaches, Albright said, of the disaster area that encompasses 37 counties and three tribal governments.

Gov. Mark Dayton signed a previous disaster relief bill into law in January that provided an additional $17 million in relief for communities impacted by the flooding.

The committee approved HF748 as amended and referred the bill to the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee. A Senate companion, SF699, sponsored by Sen. Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake), awaits action by the Senate Capital Investment Committee.

The bill proposes to appropriate $13.3 million from the General Fund, $9.4 million from the bond proceeds fund and $800,000 from the state transportation bond proceeds fund.

The Board of Water and Soil Resources would receive much of that funding, with $12.6 million earmarked for the agency’s erosion, sediment and water quality control cost-share program. The Department of Natural Resources would also receive roughly $4.6 million to repair facility and natural resource damage in state parks and flood hazard mitigation restoration of a Prior Lake outlet channel.