GLO may modify plan for $4.3B in flood aid
The Texas General Land Office will consider tweaking its plan for spending $4.3 billion in federal flood control funds following concerns aired by Houston-area officials this week.
Chief among Houston and Harris County leaders’ gripes with the state’s 315-page plan — voiced in news reports and at a hearing on Wednesday night — are three key points. They say the proposal would:
• give a disproportionately small amount of funding to the Houston area in comparison to its Harvey damage, particularly because applicants for the main $2.1 billion pot of Harvey aid are limited to three projects applications of no more than $100 million each;
• penalize local governments for collaborating on projects by having any joint applications count against each participant’s three-application limit; and
• take too long to implement, given that all applicants would get their first project funded before any entity got a second approved.
The $4.3 billion, intended to help pay for projects to prevent future flooding, was approved by Congress in February 2018 after Hurricane Harvey swamped southeast Texas, leading to more than 100 deaths and causing an estimated $125 billion in damage the previous August. The unprecedented storm dumped more than 60 inches of rainfall in some parts and was blamed for 36 deaths and the flooding of 150,000 properties in Houston and Harris County.
The GLO unveiled its plan for spending the flood mitigation funds last month.
“Forty-four percent of the directly affected people live in Houston-Harris County, yet nowhere near half of the disaster mitigation funds are available to Houston and Harris County under the plan,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said at the Wednesday night hearing at Texas Southern University. “Even when we repair homes and reconstruct them, if we don’t provide mitigation infrastructure then we still leave these individuals highly vulnerable.”
Turner’s points were echoed by Harris County commissioners Adrian Garcia and Rodney Ellis, who stressed that the notoriously divided Commissioners Court had unanimously passed a resolution Monday raising similar concerns about the plan.
GLO Deputy Director Heather Lagrone said after the hearing that her agency is not likely to increase the maximum funding allocated per project, but is mulling changes to better accommodate applications submitted jointly by multiple entities, and to speed up the awarding of projects.
“I was really listening as they were talking about the collaboration being penalized, so we’re going to look and see what we can do about that,” Lagrone said. “We’re trying to decide how we might be able to address it but still be equitable as much as possible.”
Perhaps each joint proposal could count only against the lead agency’s number of applications, Lagrone said, or perhaps each entity could submit three solo applications as well as an additional number of joint applications.
Houston and Harris County leaders were not alone in seeking changes regarding joint applications. Representatives of smaller jurisdictions in the region echoed the call, noting they would need to combine several entities’ funds in order to afford the minimum Harvey project size of $5 million.
Alan Black, director of operations for the Harris County Flood Control District, said he was encouraged to hear that the comment period seemed to have worked as intended.
“It’s disappointing to hear they may not be willing to allow for some provisions for more funding to come to this area that was so dramatically impacted by three storms, but if we’ve taken some steps in the right direction toward moving that money faster, that’s a positive for everybody,” he said. “We look forward to having those conversations prior to the action plan being finalized.”
Lagrone also said that rather than funding every entity’s first project before approving any agency’s second proposal, GLO may set a minimum score below which projects would not be funded, letting applicants get additional proposals approved sooner.
“If you’re scoring 40 points out of 105, do you need a project before somebody who scored 90 points out of 105?” she said. “But we do want to distribute the funds somewhat, as well.”
The GLO will respond in writing to every public comment it received at Wednesday’s meeting as well as prior gatherings in Beaumont, Austin, Corpus Christi, Rockport, Dallas and Weslaco before submitting its spending plan to the Department of Housing and Urban Development — which is providing the funds — by Feb. 3.
HUD will have 60 days to review the plan and either approve it or send it back for revisions. State officials hope to begin accepting project applications next summer.