{"id":1412,"date":"2011-10-17T14:19:34","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T19:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2011-10-17T14:19:34","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T19:19:34","slug":"officials-find-unused-8-4-million-for-natural-disaster-reimbursements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2011\/10\/17\/officials-find-unused-8-4-million-for-natural-disaster-reimbursements\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials Find Unused $8.4 Million for Natural Disaster Reimbursements"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WindsurfGirl \/ Flickr<\/p>\n

Cities, towns and counties that haven't been reimbursed for disasters dating back to 2007 will be paid first, emergency management officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The state will send $8.4 million to cities, counties, towns and the Oklahoma National Guard to reimburse costs related to natural disasters and extreme weather events.<\/p>

Cities, counties and towns will get $6.4 million, and the Guard will receive $2 million for costs related to fighting wildfires, including expensive helicopter missions to dump water on statewide blazes, The Oklahoman<\/em>\u2019s Michael McNutt reported<\/a>.<\/p>

In mid-August, Oklahoma owed<\/a> more than $36 million in disaster reimbursements to various city, county, municipal and tribal agencies. Gov. Mary Fallin called on legislators to replenish the emergency fund, which had a balance of less than $1,000 and hadn\u2019t received an appropriation since 2008, the Tulsa World<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>

But, apparently, the emergency fund isn\u2019t quite that empty.<\/p>

Legislators in 2010 appropriated $15 million to the governor\u2019s office for transfer to the state emergency fund. House Bill 2411, signed into law by then-Gov. Brad Henry, transferred $6.6 million from the State Treasury\u2019s Special Cash Fund and $8.4 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Office of the Governor.<\/p>

The money was to go to cities, towns, counties and electric cooperatives to help for pay for damage caused by blizzards, ice storms, floods and tornadoes.<\/p>

The $6.6 million was distributed. But, faced with a budget shortfall, Henry held back the $8.4 million in case it was needed for core state services, Ashwood told The Oklahoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state emergency fund is not just for us,\u201d Ashwood said. \u201cAny other state agency can ask the governor to take money from that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Henry never acted on the $8.4 million, and Fallin didn\u2019t know the money remained, state Finance Director Preston Doerflinger told the paper.<\/p>

On Friday, Fallin signed a letter authorizing the funds for transfer.<\/p>

Cities, towns and counties due reimbursements dating back to 2007 will receive funds first, Aswood said. Electric cooperatives, which are owed about $20 million, won\u2019t receive any of the money. The state still owes about $28 million in disaster reimbursements to various entities and agencies, The Oklahoman<\/em> reported.<\/p>

The State Emergency Fund<\/a> was created in 1963 to help communities respond to disasters. Once a presidential disaster declaration is issued, the federal government pays 75 percent of the reimbursement costs to cities, counties, electric cooperatives, water districts and other entities that sustained infrastructure damage.<\/p>

The remaining 25 percent of the reimbursement costs are split between the state and individual entity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state will send $8.4 million to cities, counties, towns and the Oklahoma National Guard to reimburse costs related to natural disasters and extreme weather events.Cities, counties and towns will get $6.4 million, and the Guard will receive $2 million for costs related to fighting wildfires, including expensive helicopter missions to dump water on statewide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[24,85,49,53],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}