St. Louis has not spent any of the money the Missouri legislature set aside for tornado relief.
“Right now, we are looking at having activated zero at this point, that's correct,” Mayor Cara Spencer said at a press briefing on Thursday.
In June, Missouri lawmakers allocated $100 million to help the city with tornado recovery.
But seven months later, Spencer said the city has spent zero dollars.
“It can feel frustrating,” she said. “We share frustration, but our state has been good faith partners in this.”
Spencer placed the blame on the federal government, saying the state funds have to operate as a reimbursement, and changes at FEMA have slowed the process.
“FEMA has agreed to allocate a good amount, well over $100 million to the city, for demolition. And the way we had worked with the state to activate those funds is in the local matching part, which is 25% of the funds that are required to get those FEMA funds activated,” Spencer said. “And so the initial tranche was to work with that. Unfortunately, you know, that has taken a big, heavy lift and a long time to get going. That's not unusual for FEMA funds, but it is longer than we anticipated, particularly because of all the changes to FEMA.”
Spencer said the city is working as quickly as it can with the state and FEMA to try to activate the funding.
