Grand County Commissioner Rich Cimino and Grand Lake Mayor Steve Kudron testified March 18 in support of a house bill for disaster mitigation.

Cimino and Kudron spoke to the Colorado House of Representatives on their support of House Bill 21-1208: Natural Disaster Mitigation Enterprise.

The bi-partisan bill establishes an enterprise to be funded by fee revenue from insurance policies for a natural disaster mitigation grant program. The bill also provides local governments technical assistance on natural disaster mitigation.

“In short, what this bill does is help counties like ours recover financially in the aftermath of extreme natural events like the East Troublesome Fire,” Cimino said in a release. “Many times, federal disaster funding assistance is only available if local governments match those funds dollar-for-dollar. This bill establishes a pool of funds that can be accessed via a grant process to help cover those match requests.”

The enterprise would collect $1.25 of every $1,000 in insurance premiums collected on certain policies by insurance companies that offer those policies. Additionally, HB 21-1208 would provide grants to local communities for natural disaster mitigation in an attempt to lessen the effects of large-scale disasters.

The house voted 8-4 to refer the bill to the committee on finance.