Central Texas has experienced three 100-year floods within the last six years, and Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda dumped literally feet of water across southeast portions of the state, both within the past two years.
Cities and counties, left struggling in the aftermath, were largely dependent on federal disaster declarations and subsequent funding, which, as local residents have learned, takes years to materialize.
Although those kinds of massive destructive events will likely stay beyond mankind’s attempts at control, lesser events, say 10 to 12-inch rainfalls, may be be something Texas can engineer around, if enough Texans vote for in favor of it.
A broad framework for future flood mitigation based on watersheds instead of political boundaries established in SB 8 passed both houses of the Texas Legislature unanimously and became effective Sept. 1. Making sure that money won’t be taken away by some future Legislature, however, is contingent on voters approving Prop. 8, as an amendment to the Texas Constitution, on Nov. 5.
State Rep. Dale Phelan, (R-Orange) chairman of the House Committee on State Affairs, spoke at a town hall gathering sponsored by State Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Kyle) in San Marcos on Oct. 4.
As a native of Southeast Texas, Phelan said Harvey was a “wake-up call” to many. “People had not seen rain like that before,” he said, nor the flooding such an inundation results in.
“Floodwaters do not respect political boundaries,” he said. “The water will go where water wants to go.” Given that, the efforts of cities and counties, acting within their physical jurisdictions, don’t do a lot more, he said, than recall the old adage about the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
After the waters recede, Phelan said, requests start pouring into the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). “Grant requests come in based on political boundaries,” he said, while “cities are dumping water on each other, counties are dumping water on each other and it makes no sense. No one was talking to each other and nothing was being done on a regional basis.”
Prop. 8, he said, “will empower local governments to come together and cooperate,” drawing on a $1.7 billion flood infrastructure fund established within the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), safe from the hands of future legislators who might want to divert the money.
Phelan also proposed that projects that build flood resiliency should be undertaken like transportation projects are, where entities “come together and identify projects, engineer them, rank them and score them … science should dictate. The highest scoring project is not necessarily the most expensive project.”
Three recent reports from the Governor’s office, the General Land office and the TWDB reinforce a regional approach, he said.
But, it will take time. “If we’re going to move the needle of flood mitigation projects in Texas, it’s going to take a decade, maybe two decades,” he said, adding that the approach must be “science-based,” as well as depoliticized.
Given recent history – Phelan said his district has experienced flooding in a string of recent years except for 2018, which saw no flood but was the wettest year in Houston history with 100 inches of rainfall – there’s an urgency to Prop. 8.
There is also opposition from some who “say it’s not the proper role of government to get involved in flood mitigation” or that it would disrupt markets, Zwiener said, adding that “misunderstandings” over Prop 4, concerning a future state sales tax, might skew the vote because it is expected to draw to the polls “intensely fiscally conservative folks.”
Another urgency is built into SB 8, which mandates the development of regional flood plans by Sept. 1, 2024. “In five years there’s no funding from the state unless you are in the plan,” Phelan said.
He stressed that Prop. 8, though opposed by “conservative think tanks,” has no impact on property taxes. “The money has already been appropriated,” from the state’s Rainy Day Fund. “Prop. 8 makes it certain – it can only be used for flood mitigation. This is not gonna raise your taxes,” he said, explaining that the state’s emergency fund comes entirely from oil and gas production. “I want to educate folks as best I can,” said Phelan, who’s been preaching Prop. 8 across the state. “I want a mandate so we can go back (in the future) and say we want more money.”
“The biggest strength of the proposition is it’s designed to encourage watershed-level cooperation,” Zwiener said. “Those are the boundaries that make sense. This provides tools for folks to come together and coordinate and make it easier for the city or county” to, as an example, fund some regional project to mitigate Blanco River flooding.
On hand for the discussion were elected officials, including Pct. 4 Commissioner Walt Smith, Sheriff Gary Cutler, Kyle Mayor Pro Tem Dex Ellison and San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson. Smith asked the spirit of regional cooperation might be a good backdrop for the Legislature to grant counties more power, like zoning.
“We at the county lack zoning authority,” Smith said. “A lot of these issues interact with municipalities. We don’t have similar authority, especially over what can go in a flood plain. If this goes forward, and I hope it does, will the Legislature look in the future at giving us a little bit of authority?”
“It’s something we may have to look at,” Phalen said.
Zwiener said the Legislature may need to address that issue at least in certain fast-growing counties, where much of the development is taking place both outside city limits and extra-territorial jurisdictions. “We need to acknowledge that. Please come and be vocal at the Legislature,” she said.
Early voting for the Nov. 5 election starts Oct. 21 and runs through Nov 1. This election will be the first in Hays County where voters may cast their ballots on election day at any of dozens of voting centers scattered throughout the county instead of being required to do so in the precinct where they reside.
“If you see a sign for a voting center, you can vote there,” Zwiener said.
