FEMA's New 'Disaster Deductible' Shifts Responsibility to States
View on Emergency Management website"'Transferring aid from federal to local government is not costless,' Carolyn Kousky, a fellow at the environmental research nonprofit Resources for the Future, said in an interview. 'There are a lot of declarations for very small amounts of money, and for some it costs more to get the dollars to local government than the money they’re sending.'
Her organization put out a study that found the deductible would reduce federal aid by a small percentage but would eliminate a large number of the emergency declarations, thereby saving on administrative costs.
However, there is a chance that even a minor decrease in aid would be felt most by small and rural communities.
'Victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey would still get a large amount of money,' Kousky said. 'It’s very plausible that some rural communities with less resources would feel the loss of that small amount of money more since it’s a bigger deal.'"
