Biting the hand

Florida and Texas are among states who elect governors with an avowed contempt for the federal government. In late August Hurricane Idalia laid waste to a chunk of Florida’s western shore and inland. President Biden went there to survey the destruction, order federal disaster assistance through FEMA, and to comfort storm victims.
It’s not clear yet how much federal money will flow into Florida. Last year, after Hurricane Ian, FEMA sent more than $1 billion in survivor assistance and another $4.5 billion for Florida families and communities to rebuild.
Two years ago in Texas, after a massive winter freeze crippled that state’s infrastructure, Biden ordered billions in disaster funding for dozens of counties. Six months later, Hurricane Ida hit southeast Texas. Biden sent more hundreds of millions in disaster aid.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida recently declined to meet Biden in Florida and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been reluctant to talk about all that help from a place he despises. Their gratitude may be deadened by the shock of repeated seasonal wreckage, or the flow of those persistent and annoying federal dollars. Or both.
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Disaster aid is one measure of government assistance. Public improvements are another.
Closer to home in Kansas, the state Department of Transportation recently announced a two-year, $49 million program to replace or rehabilitate more than 30 city and county bridges that are not part of the state highway system. Most of the money ‒ $42.3 million ‒ will come from Washington.
The Kansas projects cover a range of rural and urban territory. A new bridge in Dodge City ($9 million) and county bridge work in rural Decatur ($544,000), Crawford ($990,000) and Doniphan ($836,000) Counties are examples. Depending on the paperwork, 70 to 90 percent of the money comes from Washington.
State transportation officials had refigured two local bridge programs to take advantage of the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and $108 billion notched for American public transportation. In Kansas there were 176 applications for $162 million in bridge repairs. Of the state’s 19,000 bridges, a fourth of them are outmoded or unsafe, according to state studies..
Most of the Kansas congressional delegation opposed the spending bill. U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat, voted for the bill. The five Republican members of the Kansas delegation, including senators, voted against it.
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Government unbelievers often dash for the FEMA lines after the flood, the tornado, the prairie fire. States-rights advocates who warn about federal intrusion are first to complain when the highway money or farm subsidies are late to their district.
During the Brownback years in Topeka, Republicans denounced Washington’s spending habits, then raided state highway funds, agency budgets and employee pensions to cover budget deficits that followed tax cuts for business and the wealthy.
Today many citizens, rural and urban, claim a fierce, independent and up-by-the-bootstraps headway, lamenting the intrusions of a federal government. And yet they are up in arms at the mildest threat to a federal farm bill or corporate tax loopholes and write-offs.
Kansas, like many other states, is a primary client, beneficiary and recipient of federal support. The state would wither without it. It’s a mystery why our politicians are so eager to bite the hand that helps us.