State seeks FEMA agreement on Capitol complex repair budget; July 14 deadline set

Doug Farnham, the state’s chief recovery officer, told the Corrections & Institutions committee Friday that negotiations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over repairs to the Capitol complex from the July 2023 floods are ongoing and that the administration has until July 14 to agree a project budget with FEMA.

Farnham said FEMA will base its contribution on “the cost to repair and mitigate in place” for each building and that the state must lock a single project budget with FEMA to move to a next-phase plan that could include elevating utilities, replacing lost square footage and other mitigation. “We have until July 14th to set the project budget for the capital complex repair,” Farnham said.

Why it matters: the budget figure FEMA agrees to will determine how much federal reimbursement the state can expect and how much the state will need to pay. Farnham told the committee the administration estimates the capital complex project will be “somewhere in that $200,000,000 range,” and that the state’s cost share would be roughly 10 percent of that estimate (about $20 million) under the reimbursement formula FEMA applies.

Most important facts

- Damage and scope: July 2023 rainfall events flooded much of the Capitol complex; Farnham estimated about 17 of roughly 20 sites were affected, with some first-floor inundation up to four or five feet in buildings along State Street. Several buildings remain unusable or only temporarily repaired.

- FEMA process and deadline: FEMA must first agree on the cost to repair-and-mitigate each building in place. Once FEMA and the state agree on…