Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ) has introduced a bill making it easier for rural counties to access Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster assistance.
What the Bill Does
Rep. Crane's Rural Disaster Fairness Act addresses a problem affecting counties where the federal government owns most of the land: since the federally owned land is not subject to local property taxes, those counties therefore have a smaller tax base.
This, in turn, means infrastructure maintenance is equally slow, so when a disaster strikes, FEMA is sometimes left essentially determining whether the disaster just finished off aging infrastructure.
FEMA determines how much assistance a disaster area needs through a county per capita indicator, meaning a county must meet a set dollar amount of estimated public assistance damages per resident, based on losses relative to population.
The problem is that the county's own tax revenue is not factored in, placing more financial burden on rural counties than others.
As a result, Rep. Crane's Rural Disaster Fairness Act requires FEMA to halve the per capita damage threshold for any county that can levy property taxes on less than 15 percent of its land.
What Crane is Saying
"The federal government owns vast swaths of land out West, which limits the tax base for rural counties," the Arizona congressman said in a press release. "In turn, they often have less money to spend on critical infrastructure, mitigation efforts, and response operations. My legislation would reform FEMA's evaluation process to take into account how much land these jurisdictions are able to tax."
Crane continued, "This approach would lower a pivotal threshold to give them a better chance of receiving aid in the aftermath of catastrophic events. The plan is rooted in the realities of the district I represent, and I'm hopeful my colleagues will join me in helping rural America recover from floods, wildfires, and other emergencies."
