NORWICH – No one can say for sure how much of an impact recent changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance Program will have on individual municipalities, but most agree the changes will result in at least some decrease in funding.
On Nov. 13, changes to FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, regarding administrative costs, were put into effect. The program, which previously funded 2 to 3 percent of disaster-related project costs as an administrative overhead reimbursement, has been changed and many believe that will result in less federal funding.
According to Alexandra Kirin, a media representative from FEMA, the changes were intended to “ simplify and clarify the method by which FEMA reimburses costs incurred by grantees and subgrantees in administering FEMA's Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation Grant programs following a declared disaster or emergency, and establishes fixed management cost rates for compensating eligible grantees and sub-grantees.” 
Under the new regulations, New York State would receive 3.5 percent of all project costs to cover their own administrative costs, and distribute the rest to individual municipalities. “This reduces the amount of money for grant management,” said State Emergency Management Office representative Dennis Michalski. “This is a national issue, and all the states are looking at the impact.”
During a normal disaster situation, FEMA pays for 75 percent of disaster costs, the state picks up 12.5 percent and the municipality pays 12.5 percent. On top of that, FEMA pays an additional 2 to 3 percent to help with administrative overhead costs, which include associated costs (audits, inspections and overtime pay), grantee state management costs and grantee indirect costs (utilities, rent and other overhead).
Norwich Emergency Management Officer A. Wesley Jones explained that disasters cause a lot of extra work that eats up time for city employees. “We spend hours and hours meeting with officials and doing project paperwork. The reason this is significant is because that’s our recoup of time going into these things,” Jones said. He continued, explaining that in addition to the hours worked, increased utilities are used as representatives from FEMA and state agencies set up shop in the Emergency Operations Center.
Kirin explained that the changes to the funding would mean “management costs will be based on a set percentage of the projected federal share of eligible project costs for public assistance provided pursuant to a major disaster or emergency declaration, and hazard mitigation grant programs provided pursuant to a major disaster declaration. Administrative or project management costs that are properly documented may continue to be charged directly to a project.”
Michalski explained the impact of the changes, saying, “If there is a $100 million disaster, and New York State receives 3 percent of that, that’s $3 million, and in a situation like the flooding in 2006, 25 counties were significantly impacted.” Michalski explained it would be easy to go through that amount in one day with so many municipalities affected. While Michalski said the impact would have an effect, he also said the “impact is not going to stop the state from responding to an emergency situation.”