SALT LAKE CITY — After back-to-back years of declaring a drought emergency each spring, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox convened lawmakers on Wednesday to address a new statewide crisis — the consequences of record snowpack and flooding.
With reservoirs and waterways across the state filling up, and two to three times the normal amount of snowpack still piled in the mountains, lawmakers reappropriated $33 million in state funds to address the expected damages.
“We are in uncharted territory,” House Majority Leader Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, told his colleagues ahead of a vote on the emergency legislation, adding that the concern of the state is now how water will come off the mountains.
Lawmakers moved $20 million from the Department of Transportation’s construction budget to its maintenance and repair budget for highway construction and repair; reallocated $10 million for infrastructure improvements at the state and local level from the wildland fire suppression budget; and $3 million from the state disaster recovery restricted account was moved to the Department of Public Safety.
Read the full story here: Salt Lake Tribune.
Written by SOFIA JEREMIAS and JEFF PARROTT, sltrib.com.
Copyright © The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.