MEMA warns expanded FEMA "Other Needs" eligibility is raising state costs; agency seeks fund transfers and replenishment

Executive Director Gary McCraney of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told legislators at a budget hearing that a federal change expanding FEMA's Other Needs Assistance (ONA) registrations has increased the state's 25% cost share and is driving up monthly bills to the disaster trust fund.

McCraney said the federal intake process now funnels more registrants into FEMA assistance (rather than routing them first through the Small Business Administration), which has led to a large jump in ONA payments that trigger the state's required 25 percent share.

That change matters because it can convert smaller, localized events into larger state costs. ‘‘They say mitigation prevents $6 of work we gotta do later on in a disaster,’’ McCraney said, explaining why he wants to prioritize mitigation funding.

McCraney outlined recent ONA totals from Mississippi disasters and the fiscal effect: for example, he cited one declaration (referred to in the transcript as ‘‘4790’’) with about $11,000,000 in ONA claims and said the state’s 25 percent portion of that ONA would be paid from the disaster trust fund. Senator Hobson asked, "Was that 4790, was that a a series of tornado events or which what was the disaster for that?" McCraney replied that the April event included several long-track storms affecting six counties in the metro area.

To blunt the new and larger ONA bills, McCraney…