News

March 7, 2008

Legislators eye flood relief plan

Bill would create fund for projects with a surcharge on all property-insurance.

SCRANTON – While listening to public comment on a flood-prevention bill at City Hall on Thursday, state legislators agreed the state should provide relief for flood damage that doesn’t reach federal-involvement thresholds and that an overall spending-guide strategy also should be created.

The state House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee met to hear testimony on House Bill 1989, introduced last year by state Rep. Jim Wansacz, D-Old Forge, which would create a multimillion-dollar fund for flood damage repair or flood-prevention projects by levying an annual surcharge on all property-insurance policies.

The surcharge was introduced at $1, and representatives felt confident Pennsylvanians won’t balk at the fee. “For 99 percent of the constituents, it isn’t the buck or two bucks,” Rep. Frank Shimkus, D-South Abington Township, said. “It’s ‘Can I see something for the buck?’ ”

But representatives also said the surcharge would likely have to be raised to cover all the necessary projects. “We could probably put $20 on each household, and it couldn’t cover the need in the state,” Wansacz said.

Several state officials testified generally in favor of the bill. Cathy Curran Myers, the Department of Environmental Protection’s deputy secretary for water management, said the funding would help her agency get beyond reacting to flooding events and start becoming more proactive with implementing prevention projects.

The issue is particularly important for Pennsylvania, she said, because damage costs reach into the billions, making the state within the top two states in flood-insurance claims.

“I’m not sure that’s where we want to be,” she said.

John Comey, the executive assistance to the director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, said that with roughly 80,000 miles of waterways in the state, a major flood occurs every 14 months, the last being in this area in November.

He supported providing relief when damages don’t reach the federal $15.2-million threshold.

Robert Flanagan, the Lackawanna County Emergency Management Agency director, echoed that, relating several anecdotes, including one of a family whose home was well above a floodplain and had no need for flood insurance, but who were left homeless by flood waters that washed out the only bridge leading home.

“That happens a lot, I think, in all our districts,” Rep. John Payne, R-Dauphin, said regarding flood damage in areas that never had problems before.

The bill resembles an initiative Gov. Ed Rendell has announced, and while legislators were noncommittal on which plan should be enacted, they agreed that the funding should be linked with legislation mandating comprehensive stormwater-management planning.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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