In today's Kenosha News, basically the hammer has been lowered.
Kenosha will not receive any federal funds.
We do not qualify. Most of the homes and property that was damaged is covered under insurance.
This is great news.
Although, we still have some problems.
Who is going to pay for all of the damage done to county and municipal property?
Obviously a ton of money was poured into services sent scrambling to help tornado victims. All of this still costs taxpayers money.
The great news is that after the tornadoes in Stoughton a few years back, our legislators created a disaster relief fund. Just like Kenosha, at the time, Stoughton did not qualify for federal relief funds.
However, the Wisconsin Disaster Relief fund is broke already.
State Rep. Samantha Kerkman has been working the system attempting to find some funds that can be transferred over to the Wisconsin Disaster Relief fund.
She has no place to go. There is no money.
Kenosha News
"The hard part is when you face a $400 million (state) deficit, how and where are you going to get the money these days?" Kerkman said.
Representative Kerkman is right- where does Kenosha turn when it needs help?
We have over $21 million in damages. A majority of that is covered by insurance.
However, the county and municipal services working to clean up is not covered.
Kenosha County and municipal taxpayers will be paying for this. This means our taxes will be going up.
Wisconsin government has been spending money so irresponsibly for the last couple of years that there is now no place to turn when it's residents need help.
The question I have is where is Kenosha's disaster relief fund?
There needs to be a fund that is untouchable for anything but financing disaster relief.
Kenosha will do okay with this and we will certainly take care of ourselves, but better planning is needed in Kenosha and our state for disaster relief.
If we have learned nothing, anything can happen at any time. For heaven's sake we had tornadoes in Wisconsin, in January.
We can do better and it is time to demand that our government be better prepared for any and all weather disasters.
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