Harris County Commissioners Supplement Flood-Bond Funds with Highway Money to Accelerate Mitigation

Tuesday, Harris County Commissioners Court voted 5-0 to transfer $315 million of toll road revenue, unallocated County road bonds and other county funds to accelerate the construction of certain flood-bond mitigation projects. They will allocate the funds to mitigation projects using the 2018 Flood Bond Prioritization Criteria.

Text of Motion Adopted

The final language as amended and approved reads as follows:

---

Create a new funding facility of $115 million, made up of County road bonds or HCTRA surplus revenue, to free up Flood Control bond capacity currently used for the Subdivision Program.  The Flood Control bond capacity will be allocated by utilizing the 2018 Flood Bond prioritization criteria.

Create an additional funding facility of $200 million, comprised of HCTRA surplus revenue or other County resources, to support completion of projects that are part of the 2018 bond program with the required transportation nexus.

---

Discussion on the motion(s) lasted about an hour. It became clear that commissioners believe they:

• Must complete all projects in the bond.
• Expect not to find partnership funds for some projects, leaving some projects underfunded.
• Need more money.
• Must use diverted funds on flood projects that have some connection to transportation, i.e., problems created by new highway construction.

Commissioner Ramsey mentioned several problems created by Highway 99 on the west side that desperately need funding.

Another Bond? Not So Fast

Commissioners talked about the possibility of another flood-bond offering. However, the likelihood of that passing is slim. Poor people feel the money is going to affluent neighborhoods and affluent people feel the money is going to poor neighborhoods. If no one is happy with the way the current bond money has been handled, why would anymore vote to approve more?

Commissioners have grappled for more than a month with how to handle a possible shortfall in partner funding. Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis threatened to slow down or halt all flood-bond projects until Flood Control found a way to fully fund projects in Halls and Greens Bayous. Today’s development, seemed to avoid that showdown.

Flood Control will try to collapse a ten-year timeline down to five years.

It’s unclear at this time how today’s development will affect HUD grants in the pipeline, the interest costs on borrowed money, or the availability of qualified contractors.

More after I get a chance to study the video of the meeting.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/28/2021

1338 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The post Harris County Commissioners Supplement Flood-Bond Funds with Highway Money to Accelerate Mitigation appeared first on Reduce Flooding.