State OKs $90M for debris removal
Funds will help pay what feds don’t reimburse
AUSTIN — More relief is on the way to help communities battered by Hurricane Harvey, with an additional $90 million approved to help expedite debris removal along Texas’ devastated Gulf Coast regions, including Houston.
Gov. Greg Abbott and state House and Senate leaders announced Thursday that the additional “emergency funding” from the state’s General Revenue Account would go to counties to help pay for the removal of storm debris and help speed up the removal process.
They said the additional funding will lessen the burden for debris cleanup on local taxpayers , who now must pay for 10 percent of the total cost. The rest is paid for by the federal government.
“In most cases, even with federal assistance, cities and counties in the impacted areas are responsible for 10 percent of costs associated with debris removal,” Abbott’s office said in a statement. “Today’s funding allocation will help alleviate that burden for communities as they continue to rebuild.”
Abbott called the additional funding “just one more step in a long process to help our cities and counties recover.”
No details on where the $90 million will be directed was immediately available.
Debris removal has been one of the most contentious issues dogging public officials in wake of Harvey, which struck the Texas Gulf Coast in late August and lingered, creating massive flooding throughout the Houston region and Southeast Texas. The initial slow pace
of debris removal angered residents, which in turn incited elected officials and led to some heated debates at city halls in Houston and elsewhere.
In an updated report Friday, the Texas Department of Emergency Management said that more than 9.4 million cubic yards of debris have been collected so far, about 34 percent of the total generated by the storm.
According to state calculations through Oct. 25, much of the debris removal remaining is in the Houston area.
In Harris County, 2.3 million cubic yards of an estimated 11.9 million cubic yards of debris have been hauled off two months after the storm. Some 539,000 cubic yards of 1.8 million cubic yards have been hauled off in Galveston County.
In Jefferson County, 616,000 cubic yards of 1 million cubic yards have been removed.
In contrast, 392,000 cubic yards of an estimated 530,000 have been hauled off in Fort Bend County, and 112,000 of 150,000 cubic yards have been removed in Montgomery County, according to the state report.
Officials said the funds announced Thursday for debris removal will be administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which will work with the Texas Department of Emergency Management.
Delays in debris removal have prompted complaints for weeks.
In September, Abbott presented a check for $50 million to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner for costs related to Harvey, a move the mayor said would allow the city to avoid a temporary property tax hike.
Officials at the time said much of that amount was to fund debris removal.
Under an agreement that Texas made with the Trump administration, the state and local governments are being reimbursed for 90 percent of the costs of Harvey damages, rather than the usual 75 percent.
Even so, county and local officials have complained that they are having to spend millions of dollars out of their current budgets that will not be reimbursed by the federal government for months. Several cities and counties have complained that is slowing their recovery efforts.
Abbott aides said the emergency allocation of $90 million from state funds is designed to address those issues.
Hurricane Harvey was the strongest hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years.