$17M Flood Aid Package Heads to Minnesota Lawmakers for Signature

Minnesota lawmakers have given final approval to a $17 million package of disaster assistance that will help local governments pay remaining bills from June storms that hit the state hard.

The House voted 132-0 on Monday for a bill already passed by the Senate. Gov. Mark Dayton is supportive.

Forty-seven counties and three tribal reservations sustained serious damage after torrential rains last summer. Most but not all qualified for federal assistance.

The bill contains only about $2.2 million in new funding because some unused money from previous disaster recoveries was shifted over.

Republican Rep. Jim Knoblach estimated there was $74 million in federal and state disaster assistance connected to the flooding. Some of it was for repairing structures and a chunk is to fix washed out roads.