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Independence, MO —
The state of Missouri is doing the right thing in picking up the extra costs of demolition removal in Joplin, but it’s one more item on the state’s running tab of disaster-related costs that legislators will have to address.
Gov. Jay Nixon is expected to call legislators into special session next month to take up a Democrat-Republican compromise on economic development and, separately, disaster costs from flooding on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, the February blizzard and tornadoes, notably the May 22 twister in Joplin that killed 160 people and took out 8,000 homes and businesses.
In a Joplin-type disaster, the federal government picks up 90 percent of the cost of demolition removal, a job that was somewhere around 90 percent complete at the end of July. The state asked for another month of that arrangement, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency said no.
The work will go on, with feds will paying 75 percent of the bill. That leaves state and local governments with the rest. But the storm also obviously hammered the Joplin’s tax base, so the state will cover the other 25 percent.
There is even talk of using the state’s rainy day fund, despite its cumbersome nature. There are restrictions on how much can be taken out and fairly tight rules on when it needs to be repaid, leading to fair questions about the utility of the fund. If we’ve paid the taxes but they sit idle, what’s the point?
The state’s own budget has been tight for years. The governor has withheld budgeted money for a variety of services. He makes a strong moral argument for helping out fellow Missourians in times of disaster, but that does mean less for other work. Unlike Congress, the General Assembly has to balance its budget – and that often means spreading around the pain.
The state of Missouri is doing the right thing in picking up the extra costs of demolition removal in Joplin, but it’s one more item on the state’s running tab of disaster-related costs that legislators will have to address.
Gov. Jay Nixon is expected to call legislators into special session next month to take up a Democrat-Republican compromise on economic development and, separately, disaster costs from flooding on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, the February blizzard and tornadoes, notably the May 22 twister in Joplin that killed 160 people and took out 8,000 homes and businesses.
In a Joplin-type disaster, the federal government picks up 90 percent of the cost of demolition removal, a job that was somewhere around 90 percent complete at the end of July. The state asked for another month of that arrangement, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency said no.
The work will go on, with feds will paying 75 percent of the bill. That leaves state and local governments with the rest. But the storm also obviously hammered the Joplin’s tax base, so the state will cover the other 25 percent.
There is even talk of using the state’s rainy day fund, despite its cumbersome nature. There are restrictions on how much can be taken out and fairly tight rules on when it needs to be repaid, leading to fair questions about the utility of the fund. If we’ve paid the taxes but they sit idle, what’s the point?
The state’s own budget has been tight for years. The governor has withheld budgeted money for a variety of services. He makes a strong moral argument for helping out fellow Missourians in times of disaster, but that does mean less for other work. Unlike Congress, the General Assembly has to balance its budget – and that often means spreading around the pain.
