The Emergency Services Act establishes in state government, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services and makes the office responsible for the state’s emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or man-made disasters and emergencies, as specified.

This bill would enact the Emergency Fairgrounds Communications Grant Act and would require, on or before January 1, 2025, the office to establish a grant program to provide fairgrounds with grant funding for the purpose of building and upgrading communication and internet infrastructure on fairgrounds. The bill would require the office to establish standards to determine the awarding of grant funding that award funding based on a fairground’s need for internet capabilities in order to service an emergency response operation. The bill would require those standards to require, at a minimum, that a fairground receiving grant funds be located in an area with sufficient open-access middle-mile broadband infrastructure within a reasonable distance to support the fairground’s expanded broadband capabilities and be capable of providing public access to the fairground’s broadband network throughout the year. authorize the office to prioritize the order of grant disbursements based on prescribed criteria. The bill would also require the office to consult with the Department of Technology and the Department of Food and Agriculture to coordinate the statewide building and upgrading of communication and internet infrastructure on fairgrounds. The bill would provide that the program is operative only upon an appropriation by the Legislature for its purposes.