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Texas
Related: About this forumFEMA Denies Texas Request for Full Disaster Aid, Rankling Stricken Town
WEST, Tex. When the federal government declined to give Texas officials all the disaster aid they sought after a deadly fertilizer plant explosion here in April, it not only outraged local leaders struggling to rebuild but also raised another, politically thornier issue.
Why ask Washington for federal dollars for aid when Texas has plenty of its own dollars?
In a request sent last month to President Obama, Gov. Rick Perry wrote that the magnitude and severity of the disaster exceeded state and local resources. Because the president had already authorized the federal government to cover 75 percent of the states costs for debris removal and emergency response, the governors request amounted to a relatively small amount roughly $17 million in uninsured and underinsured damages to public buildings, equipment and utilities.
Federal officials have so far paid or agreed to pay an estimated $25 million to the state and to affected families after the explosion about $17 million for emergency work and nearly $8 million in grants and low-interest disaster loans for individuals. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency determined that under the federal disaster law, called the Stafford Act, the $17 million in uninsured public infrastructure damages were within the capabilities of the state and local governments. The states request to the president was denied because Texas failed to provide evidence that it lacked the fiscal resources to address the remaining $17 million, a FEMA spokesman said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/us/fema-denies-texas-request-for-full-disaster-aid-rankling-stricken-town.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0
Why ask Washington for federal dollars for aid when Texas has plenty of its own dollars?
In a request sent last month to President Obama, Gov. Rick Perry wrote that the magnitude and severity of the disaster exceeded state and local resources. Because the president had already authorized the federal government to cover 75 percent of the states costs for debris removal and emergency response, the governors request amounted to a relatively small amount roughly $17 million in uninsured and underinsured damages to public buildings, equipment and utilities.
Federal officials have so far paid or agreed to pay an estimated $25 million to the state and to affected families after the explosion about $17 million for emergency work and nearly $8 million in grants and low-interest disaster loans for individuals. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency determined that under the federal disaster law, called the Stafford Act, the $17 million in uninsured public infrastructure damages were within the capabilities of the state and local governments. The states request to the president was denied because Texas failed to provide evidence that it lacked the fiscal resources to address the remaining $17 million, a FEMA spokesman said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/us/fema-denies-texas-request-for-full-disaster-aid-rankling-stricken-town.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0
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FEMA Denies Texas Request for Full Disaster Aid, Rankling Stricken Town (Original Post)
white cloud
Jun 2013
OP
Texas spent $3.6 million on security for Rick Perry when he ran for president.
TexasTowelie
Jun 2013
#1
TexasTowelie
(112,415 posts)1. Texas spent $3.6 million on security for Rick Perry when he ran for president.
Uninsured losses for the tragedy in West, Texas are less than 5 times that amount.
Why don't we do a cost-benefit analysis to determine which is more important and yields better results?
It's time to use the Rainy Day fund to pay for rebuilding the town, schools and other infrastructure so that property tax rates do not escalate to the point that West becomes a ghost town.
ellenfl
(8,660 posts)2. since when is the federal government, or more correctly the american taxpayer,
responsible for damage caused by a private company? since when do republicans approve such aid? oh, right, when it affects them.