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Local disaster assistance fund

Published (3/27/2009)
By Nick Busse
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Rep. Terry Morrow (DFL-St. Peter) hopes to eliminate what has become an almost perennial happening at the Legislature: communities being forced to beg lawmakers for money to clean up after a tornado, flood or other disasters.

HF1378 would create a $6 million local disaster assistance fund to help local governments deal with the aftermath of disasters that don’t qualify for federal aid. Under the bill’s provisions, local governments could apply to the state for financial assistance in the wake of an incident. Officials from the Department of Public Safety’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division would evaluate applications and could authorize grants from the fund.

“The way we do this now is we get up on the House floor or we go to a committee and a member makes an impassioned plea for a community to get money. What we’re trying to do here is put in a process and a procedure with criteria judged by the experts,” Morrow said.

The bill would require local governments to provide a 10 percent match for any state aid; however, some members questioned whether that was enough.

Rep. Morrie Lanning (R-Moorhead) said that while he liked the idea of a disaster assistance fund, he worried that it might lead cities and counties to expect the state to always pick up the tab. He suggested the bill should include a specific cost threshold that disasters would have to meet to qualify for state assistance.

A separate provision in the bill would increase base funding for the state to match Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster assistance payments to $5.6 million per year.

The House Local Government Division approved the bill March 20 and the House State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections Committee approved it March 26. It now goes to the House Finance Committee. A companion, SF1270, sponsored by Sen. Linda Higgins (DFL-Mpls), awaits action by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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