Jefferson County’s Office of Emergency Management is facing a cut in its annual funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Management Performance Grant program.
Doug Dodge, the county’s director of emergency management, said the amount of local funding “is truly up in the air,” pending the release of this year’s data by the federal government. But Montana Disaster and Emergency Services, which distributes the FEMA funding, has estimated that this year’s grant could be $15,320, down from $28,500 in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Last year’s grant accounted for 24% of the budget of Emergency Management, which coordinates mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery activities for hazardous incidents. “As far as cuts to services because of all of this, we will just have to wait to see what the numbers are before we can make some of those decisions,” Dodge said.
