Disaster Cap Increase Moves out of State Affairs

HB 292 - “An Act relating to grants to victims of a disaster in this state;  and providing for an effective date.”

The hearing on this bill began on Tuesday, Feb. 16 and continued today, Monday.

This was about the amount the state can give to help families after a disaster.  The cap on the grant to households hasn’t changed since 1977.  It’s $5000.  That’s $17,000 in today’s dollars, the committee was told.  

The proposal is for half of what the feds give out, which can vary slightly but is about $30,000. So the new cap would be at about $15,000.

On Tuesday they'd said they have a strict process,  People don’t automatically get the max.  Average is about 30% of the cap.  If you have insurance etc. you don’t get max, or even anything.  Reasonable amount to get people moving again, not to make them whole.

They assured the committee that there were clear procedures.  "We don’t cut checks, there’s an Interview, we go through the application process with them, take photos, verify that victims can’t make themselves whole and can’t recover insurance, identify the specific need and loss." 

Passed out of committee to the Finance Committee. 


Photo is Rep. Paul Seaton of Homer speaking to Mike O'Hare Mike O’Hare, Deputy Director, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management where the bill originated. 


Here's the whole bill (The way these are formatted online, they do not fit on the blog right.  Taking out some of the HTML formatting has its own problems as you can see.  I'll leave this one, but I have to find an easier way to do this, or just link you to the bill):

HOUSE BILL NO. 292
01 "An Act relating to grants to victims of a disaster in this state; and providing for
02 effective date."
03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:   
04    * Section 1.  AS 26.23.090(b) is amended to read: (b)  The governor is authorized to make financial grants to an individual or
06       family to meet disaster-related necessary expenses or serious needs of individuals or
07       families adversely affected by the disaster that cannot otherwise adequately be met
08       from other means of assistance. The governor may make a grant to an individual and
09       family under this subsection as follows:                                                                          
10                 (1)  when the President declares a major disaster, the governor may                                    
11       make a grant of an amount whose total of federal and state shares does not exceed the
12       maximum amount authorized by 42 U.S.C. 5174(h) [42 U.S.C. 5178(f)] for grants
13       payable to individuals and families;                                                                             
14                 (2)  when the President does not declare a major disaster but the                                      
01       governor declares a disaster emergency, the governor may make a grant of an amount
02       not to exceed one-half of the maximum grant amount established under (1) of this   
03       subsection [$5,000].                                                                                         
04    * Sec. 2. This Act takes effect immediately under AS 01.10.070(c).