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Lawmakers Hear Push to Expand Disaster Resiliency Fund to Leverage Federal Grants
Summary
Supporters told the Local Government committee that expanding a state disaster resiliency fund to $100 million would help small communities meet federal match requirements and increase access to FEMA grants that typically fund roughly 75% of mitigation projects.
Representative Larry Brewster, sponsor of House Bill 34, asked the committee to revive and expand a resiliency fund intended to provide a stable, long-term source of matching funds for local disaster-mitigation projects. ‘‘It was this bill has been around before, and it didn't make it, but a few things have been changed in it, make it more palatable,’’ Brewster said during opening remarks.
State budget officials and agency leaders said the fund would let Montana pursue federal mitigation grants more effectively. Ryan Evans, assistant budget director in the governor’s office, said the proposal would seed a $100 million Montana Resiliency Fund and argued the approach is “proactive rather than reactive,” helping to reduce future property-tax burdens by funding pre-disaster mitigation rather than paying for recovery.
Delila Bruno, administrator for Montana Disaster and Emergency Services, described how the program pairs state match dollars with federal grants and highlighted past results from a pilot: the program helped leverage nearly $25 million in projects during its initial run. ‘‘On average, each project administered is awarded 75% of the cost under FEMA grant funding,’’ Bruno said, noting that the state match — often 10%–25% — is the major barrier for many communities seeking federal awards.
Local officials, utilities and emergency managers described projects that benefitted from the pilot and said the expanded fund would reach rural towns that lack the tax base to support large local matches. Missoula Electric Cooperative’s assistant general manager Kiely Montalban and 3 Forks city treasurer Kelly Smith described wildfire-mitigation and flood-prevention projects that relied on federal BRIC and similar grants plus state matching dollars to move forward.
Committee members probed eligibility rules and timeframes for federal awards. Agency witnesses said FEMA’s ranking and priorities can delay outcomes — application decisions can take around six months to a year — and that the state can prioritize projects internally and choose to ‘‘overmatch’’ or adjust local-match requirements for economically disadvantaged or rural communities. Department staff noted that projects are vetted for ownership, maintenance history and applicant eligibility before funding.
The hearing closed without a committee vote on HB 34; staff and witnesses recommended the bill and said more federal leverage would follow if the fund were expanded. The committee recessed to consider later executive actions.
The bill’s next procedural step will depend on committee action and scheduling; no final action on HB 34 was taken at this meeting.
