VIDEO: The Future Of The EMA Budget On A State and County Level

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Many state agencies in Mississippi are facing possible budget cuts in the new fiscal year, including the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Nothing will be set in stone or known until the MEMA budget is finalized in April.

No cuts are guaranteed to MEMA as of now, but they have been given budget recommendations from the Governor’s Office and the Legislative Budget Committee.

MEMA says it takes about six to eight million dollars to fully fund and operate the agency.

A portion of that money comes from a federal grant and the other portion comes from the state government.

It’s the state portion that’s facing changes.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency runs its general fund for the year on $3.2 millions dollars.

With budget talks set to start next week, MEMA says it would like just over $3.6 million, while the governor is looking for a slight cut.

“$3.1 from the Governor’s Office and an even, not really an even $3 million, but something close to that from the Legislative Budget Office. That’s a small cut from what we got last year. We got about $3.2 million dollars last year from the state budget and we made it work,” says MEMA External Affairs Officer, Ray Coleman.

Coleman says nobody can predict what the new budget will be, so the streamlining effort is already underway.

“Whether we suffer a cut or not, we’re using new ways to try to help our counties, whether that be leveraging technology, using our mobile app to get information out via social media. We have drones that we use now, where we use to use people to do damage assessments.”

Noxubee County EMA and 911 Director Corey Brown will be keeping a close eye on the state capitol.

He says seemingly small cuts to the state budget have a big impact if they are passed down to the county level.

“As they cut their budget, they’ll have to cut what they give to the counties and it will impact a lot of counties in different ways, but particularly in my county, it will effect some of the funds we have to put on trainings.”

Equipment upgrades could also be delayed, but the bottom line of providing recovery efforts will continue.

“We will not lose our ability to provide services to those people in Noxubee County, who need our assistance, and I can make that promise and that guarantee off of the experience and the relationship I have with our state agency, MEMA, they are always here when I need them.”

Brown says if there are cuts, local EMA agencies won’t feel the impact at the beginning of the year, but later on.