Flood Relief

House and Senate Republican leadership will tour the flood damage this weekend. This is a busy time of year, and I greatly appreciate them giving up their weekend to do this. But, it is hard to appreciate the magnitude of the damage without actually seeing it.

An article in the D-News talks about possible state assistance. Some of the elements of a relief package might include property tax abatement, extension of the State's credit line to the local governments, and creation of a disaster relief fund.

UPDATE (1/22/05): Every time I see the sites, I still can't believe what I'm seeing. The local city, county and water conservancy leaders have formed a tight coalition to deal with this as smoothly as possible. The individual citizens with losses also are holding together quite well. I'm proud of my community.

To give you an example of the scope of the damage, the City of Santa Clara has 10 million dollars in infrastructure damage. The City's entire annual budget is 2 million dollars. As one county commissioner stated, the local governments presently are spending money they don't have to put the infrastructure back in place.

UPDATE (1/23/05): Nancy Perkins wrote a good article on the situation. Rachel Olsen documents the work ahead.