As natural disasters continue to become more frequent, severe, and expensive, their impact to public budgets continues to grow as well. The Pew Charitable Trusts has undertaken several studies to better understand state-level spending on disasters and budgeting challenges they are facing as disaster incidence and risks rise. Specifically, Pew has found that most states inadequately track disaster-related spending across agencies. In the case of wildfires, states also underfund their disaster management programs, leading to overreliance on emergency budgeting tools like supplemental appropriations. This approach obscures the true costs of disasters from the state budgeting process, limiting insights into disaster impacts on budget stability and hindering long-term planning to manage risk through hazard mitigation. Based on these findings, Pew recommends states better measure their disaster spending, manage budget processes to account for the increasingly disruptive fiscal impact of these events, and mitigate reduce the growth of these costs over time.

Peter Muller is a senior officer with Pew’s managing fiscal risks project and conducts research and engages policymakers on topics such as natural disaster budgeting, other new and emerging risks, and state management of federal funds. Before joining Pew, he worked for the Tennessee General Assembly, where he served as the House director for the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Budget Analysis, advising legislators on a wide range of issues related to the state budget.

CCPO Innovation Research Park Building I 4111 Monarch Way, 3rd Floor Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23508 757-683-4940