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Committee broadens resilience grant language to include voluntary buyouts for flood‑impacted or vulnerable properties
Summary
Senate Government Operations edited S.397 to allow community resilience and disaster mitigation grant funds to be used for voluntary buyouts of flood‑impacted or flood‑vulnerable properties. Members debated the definition of 'vulnerable' and the effect expanding eligibility would have on limited mitigation resources.
The Senate Government Operations Committee on May 15 amended S.397 to explicitly allow the Community Resilience and Disaster Mitigation Grant Program to fund voluntary buyouts not only for properties already damaged by floods but also for properties that are flood‑vulnerable.
Why it matters: including “vulnerable” properties in the statute expands potential eligibility for buyouts and other mitigation measures, which committee members said could let the state reduce future flood losses but could also stretch an already oversubscribed mitigation fund.
Key details - Statutory change: the committee agreed to add language so the grant program may be used for “voluntary buyouts for flood impacted or vulnerable properties,” keeping the clause as an illustrative example within a broader “including, but not limited to” list of eligible mitigation projects. - Resource constraints: staff said recent mitigation funding rounds were heavily oversubscribed; a staff example cited roughly $80,000,000 in available mitigation funds against approximately $400,000,000 in interest or project demand (transcribed conversationally), indicating strong demand for limited funds. - Allocation effect: members observed that expanding eligibility to vulnerable properties could shift funds away from properties already impacted by floods; others argued that proactively buying out vulnerable parcels could reduce total future costs and improve resilience.
Discussion vs. direction vs. decisions - Discussion: committee members debated the tradeoffs between prioritizing already-impacted properties and including at-risk but not-yet-impacted properties. - Direction: committee directed staff to include the word “vulnerable” in the draft language and to use the phrase “voluntary buyouts for flood impacted or vulnerable properties” in draft 2.4. - Decision: staff confirmed the insertion would appear in the updated bill draft to be circulated later.
Proper names and authorities cited Committee discussion referenced the Community Resilience and Disaster Mitigation Grant Program and previous mitigation funding rounds (timeline and amounts discussed by staff during the meeting). Staff and members noted that program rules and scoring would still govern award decisions and that inclusion of “vulnerable” does not create an automatic entitlement to funds.
What’s next: staff will circulate draft 2.4 with the revised language and the committee asked staff to confirm any definitional or administrative guidance necessary to implement the expanded eligibility.
