By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Money could be coming from the state to help northwest Missouri recover from devastating flooding this year.

A proposed state budget, approved by the Missouri Senate, has set aside $8 million to help with recovery from the flood.

Senate Appropriations Committee chair, Sen. Dan Hegeman of Cosby, says the $8-million allocation is in anticipation of Congress passing disaster aid, which would require a local match. Hegeman says the money could be used not only for the state’s needs, but for local needs, either by counties, levee districts, or even special road districts.

Money would be set aside not just for northwest Missouri, but for central Missouri, which suffered damage from Missouri River flooding in March. Southeast Missouri would be included in the state relief, according to Hegeman.

“The Mississippi has also had some flooding problems in the past few years,” Hegeman says. “So, they’ve got some communities over there that are looking at some mitigation efforts they would certainly like to look at as well as we do with our levees that need to be replaced.”

Hegeman says the allocation in the Senate version of the state budget is meant to be flexible.

“This $8 million is meant to be fairly broad in its scope and appeal, meant for SEMA (State Emergency Management Agency) to be able to shift and use it wherever they see the need, both for restoration and mitigation,” Hegeman says.

At present, the $8 million set aside for flood relief and mitigation is only included in the $30 billion state budget approved by the Senate. Hegeman says he cannot imagine the House not going along with the allocation. Budget negotiations between the two chambers should begin soon. The House has voted to send the budget bills to conference to iron out differences between the two versions.