I think that this re-alignment of funding is greatly needed. As an emergency management community, we have averaged annually over the last five years $18 billion in natural disaster response and losses alone. With no increase in EMPG funding over the last decade (2022 notwithstanding), the cost of combating billions in annual disaster costs, and the rapidly increasing cost of doing business has become untenable at both the State and local levels. I for one am extremely grateful that IAEM, NEMA, and BCEM have stepped up to take this on. In my opinion, without some form of relief, emergency management nationwide will begin to falter in the near term and ultimately fail in the long term. I would also say that EMPG is not the end-all-be-all in terms of funding. I think it would be beneficial for these organizations to research ways of developing other forms of funding (local and state fees on insurance policies, measures to help local emergency managers educate their elected officials on the importance of funding emergency management in their community, etc.). We all would like to see the emergency management profession become even more mainstream, one fundamental way of doing this is to fund the profession to the levels needed to take it in that direction.
------------------------------
Larry Woods
Director
Springfield-Greene County OEM
Springfield MO
(417) 869-6040
------------------------------