DISASTERS: Sharing the Cost

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In mid-August, the greatest flood in the history of the northeastern U.S. took almost 100 lives in the state of Connecticut, and caused about $200 million worth of damage. Six hundred and sixty-eight homes were destroyed and 7,673 were damaged, at a cost of $27.2 million; 1,943 business establishments and 922 farms suffered losses of $136,400,000. Last month a second flood ravaged Connecticut, taking 17 lives and causing about $30 million worth of damage. Last week a 20-man Flood Recovery Committee recommended to Governor Abraham Ribicoff that the state's share of the bill—about $35 million—should be spread by a short-term tax program among all the people of the state because "the material loss to the survivors must be shared if the total community is to survive."

The committee, while concluding that there is no "sound" way of making outright grants to individual, flood victims, specifically recommended that the state raise and disburse:

¶$2,280,000 of indirect aid to the victims of the flood, mostly by the abatement of taxes on property damaged 50% or more, also by providing about 300 temporary homes, low-interest mortgage and low-rental housing facilities. ¶$16,675,000 to municipalities and towns for repair of roads, bridges, schools, playgrounds and other public properties. ¶$16, 286,000 to state departments and agencies for the repair of state highways and bridges, for the repair of buildings administered by local housing authorities, and for rehabilitating state properties such as parks, forests and official cars. Next week Ribicoff will propose to a special session of the legislature that almost all the state taxes be raised 10% for the next two years so that the cost of the flood can be evenly divided.