San Luis Obispo is still waiting for $1 million in 2023 storm recovery funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, with no definite end in sight with government shutdown, both the promised federal funds and federally-supported public transit may be threatened.
“At this point I think everybody is aware that based on Congress not being able to come to an agreement today, we are officially in the longest shutdown in the history of the country,” San Luis Obispo’s Director of Finance Emily Jackson said. “And that is starting to have really real impacts on members of our community and others across the country.”
Presented at this week’s city council meeting by SLO’s finance department, the 2024-2025 unaudited budget report stated SLO was promised about $2 million in reimbursement money from FEMA due to damage caused by the winter 2023 storm. So far, SLO has only received a little less than $1 million for that particular reimbursement.
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Along with that, $6.7 million is pending final review from FEMA for funding other SLO projects and $8.9 million is ongoing for FEMA review. Any funding over $1 million must be approved by Congress, which according to Jackson, can’t be approved yet because of the shutdown.
“I continue to be cautiously optimistic that we will receive reimbursement beyond what we already have,” Jackson said. “We are effectively owed $1 million at this point, though, I think it is important to acknowledge that the rules maybe don’t really apply as much as they used to.”
Jackson acknowledges the impact of federal funds being taken away will have on county programs and nonprofit work. However, she states SLO’s biggest reliance on federal funds is for their public transit program.
“We rely heavily on that program to help people navigate through our community,” Jackson said.
According to Jackson, the Federal Transit Administration has told local agencies that they have funding for local agencies that can last several months. SLO has enough money in their funds to stay aloft for about a year without any additional federal funding.
“While that is obviously not sufficient to sustain our transit operation in the long-term, we do have some amount of cushion,” Jackson said.
Councilmember Francis asked if “uninterrupted service” up to a year is possible without further federal funding.
San Luis Obispo Deputy Director of Public Works for Mobility Services Jennifer Rice said the one-year estimate is supposed to be full service. However, changes would definitely have to be made.
“If we thought there would be changes to the funding in the future, we would pretty soon [be] looking at how we are making adjustments to the operation that we have, what funding sources are we looking at and are there other state funding sources,” Rice said.
