Wild Wisconsin weather becoming increasingly costly

As the snow flies around Wisconsin this Friday night, it's the latest in a number of severe-weather events in Wisconsin that has led to an increasing amount of cost to deal with the damage and after-effects of these storms.

Just this week, the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee had to deal with a couple of unbudgeted expenses that were the result of weather. The first was a request by the Evers Administration to pay for bills racked up by local governments around the state due to natural disasters, whose costs have gone well beyond what is set aside in the 2019-21 budget.

The money is paid out through the Department of Military Affairs, and the Legislative Fiscal Bureau describes how the program works as follows.

State Disaster Assistance Program. The state disaster assistance program, created in 2005 Act 269,makes payments to local units of government and retail electric cooperatives for governmental costs, such as debris clearance, protective measures, and damage to roads and bridges,incurred as the result of a "major catastrophe." A major catastrophe is defined as a disaster, including a drought, flood, high wind, hurricane, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or tornado that resulted in the Governor requesting a presidential declaration of a major disaster under federal law. In 2018-19, for example, DMA provided assistance relating to a tornado in Northwestern Wisconsin, floods in Southeastern Wisconsin, and an ice storm in Iron County.

Under administrative rule,local governmental units may be reimbursed if the following eligibility criteria are satisfied: (a) the local governmental unit has suffered a "major catastrophe"; (b) a disaster or emergency declaration was issued by the local governmental unit or the state during event; (c) the damages suffered and eligible costs incurred are the direct result of the event; (d) federal disaster assistance is not available because the Governor's request that the President declare the catastrophe a major disaster has been denied or no federal assistance is requested because the event does not meet the per capita impact indicator issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); (e) at least one local governmental unit or a tribal governmental unit within the county has incurred public assistance costs that exceed the per capita impact indicator under the public assistance program guidelines issued by FEMA; and (f) the local governmental unit will contribute at least 30% of the total amount of eligible costs incurred from other funding sources.

President Trump has allowed for FEMA to help out Wisconsin with nearly $73 million in aid for damages resulting from floods in August and September 2018, and for the effects of a storm breakout in July 2019. But that only pays for 75% of those damages, and there have been several other events in the last 1 1/2 years that local governments are asking for help in cleaning up from.

The LFB notes that there is some money that is budgeted for reimbursements for natural disasters, but it's often not been enough to cover all of the disasters that have hit the state.

Two appropriations authorize DMA to provide disaster assistance. A state disaster assistance GPR appropriation is funded at $0 annually during the 2019-21 biennium. Since its creation in Act 269, the Legislature has not used this appropriation to provide funds.Further, DMA has a SEG continuing state disaster assistance appropriation supported by [the Petroleum Inspection Fund]. As a continuing appropriation, any amounts appropriated do not lapse back to PIF at the end of a fiscal year, but remain in the DMA appropriation until expended. Table 1 below shows expenditure authority under the SEG disaster assistance fund appropriation since 2010-11.

The problem is that $4.2 million had to be spent in the 2017-19 biennium to pay for disasters, which means the DMA is out of money to pay for what we have now, even with nearly 6 months left in this fiscal year.

Disaster Assistance Fund, 2019-20
Money available $1,745,200
MINUS Wash Island earmark $1,000,000
MONEY LEFT $745,200

Money paid out by Jan 1, 2020 $698,600
Other approved/pending aid requests $1,656,400
DEFICIT SO FAR $1,609,800

The Evers Administration wanted to have an additional $800,000 on top of that deficit for this year and another $244,800 in the next fiscal year to have some money set aside for regular disaster requests that will come in. But the Republicans on the JFC decided to only pay for the $1.6 million deficit that already exists, and if there's a need for more money, they'll come back later.

The JFC also unanimously agreed to pay out for another set of weather-related expenses - $1.2 million that will go to the DNR to repair storm damage in State Parks and Forests from last Summer.

The forestry emergency reserve was created in 2017 Wisconsin Act 59 to provide funds for emergency responses to significant fire, disease, infestation, or other natural disasters that could not otherwise be reimbursed by federal funds. Reserve funds also may only be transferred or expended upon approval of the Joint Committee on Finance. As a continuing appropriation, amounts are usable only for purposes specified and do not lapse to the forestry account balance to become available for other purposes. To date, no transfers have been made from this appropriation, and it continues to carry $5,000,000 SEG provided under Act 59.

Beginning on July 18, 2019, significant portions of the state were affected by extreme weather events, including hailstorms, tornadoes, heavy winds, and thunderstorms. DNR reports that more than 285,000 acres of forestland in Barron, Polk, Langlade, Oconto, Oneida, Wood, and Portage Counties were damaged in the storms. On July 21, 2019, the Governor declared a state of emergency related to the storm damage.

The DNR request would transfer $1,166,900, including: (a) $677,800 to the Division of Forestry's general program operations appropriation under s. 20.370(2)(mv) of the statutes to reimburse staff expenses related to storm damage; and (b) $489,100 to the appropriation under s. Page 2 20.370(5)(az) of the statutes to fund grants provided to local communities for storm damage response, as shown in Table 1.

I remember those storms quite well - they hit on Friday night and the following Saturday afternoon, and as I drove back from Vilas County that Saturday, I saw this scene on I-39.

It seems likely JFC will have to decide whether to pay for more of these weather-related expenses in the coming months, as last week’s winter storms, 50+ mph wind gusts and high waves led to an estimated $10 million in damage to Lake Michigan docks and lakefront parkland in Milwaukee County.

There also were reports of damage to a breakwall and railings being washed away in Port Washington, and a home had to be evacuated in Pleasant Prairie because lakefront erosion caused part of its foundation to collapse.

On another form of infrastructure, Wisconsin sewer systems in many places cannot handle the increased flows of water due to higher amounts of rain in storms. While RW radio concentrates on Milwaukee's overflows, a recent Wisconsin Watch article notes that this has become a statewide problem. And that problem seems increasingly likely to occur as these rain events become more common with climate change.

Steve Vavrus, senior scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research, said climate change is driving Wisconsin’s record rainfall. Last year was the wettest in the state’s recorded state history, while 2018 was third-wettest, according to data from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center that dates back to 1895.

“There’s generally more moisture to tap when the weather systems are favorable for rainfall or snowfall,” said Vavrus. “When we do get rain or snow, it tends to be heavier than it used to.”

Excluding Milwaukee, Wisconsin communities in 2018 discharged 150 million gallons of sewage and stormwater during 388 overflow events. That was the highest volume since 2010, the fifth-wettest year on record.

As of October 2019, 359 million gallons overflowed from those communities’ systems, while Milwaukee discharged more than 500 million gallons into waterways. And that was in a year that the Milwaukee district captured and cleaned a record 85.6 billion gallons of water.

And that requires more infrastructure to be built by local governments that barely have enough money available to staff police and fire departments or fix their roads. Which means more state funding may be needed to improve these sewer systems if we want to avoid increased flooding, sewer backups and other bad things that are resulting from the more extreme weather that is hitting in the 21st Century.

Look, I understand that many Republicans are too Koched up to be honest about the reality of climate change, but it is undeniable that there are more severe weather events in Wisconsin, causing damage to increasingly expensive assets and disrupting more Wisconsinites each year. And that means we should expect to pay more for the costs of climate change, whether GOPs like it or not.