After Trump ignored Panther Island, will Biden be friendly to the Fort Worth project?
Though former President Donald Trump ignored Fort Worth’s Panther Island, the change in administration represents an opportunity for local officials who believe President Joe Biden will see the project more favorably.
The effort to cut a channel between the two forks of the Trinity River north of downtown was again left out of the $7.3 billion 2021 Work Plan for the Army Corps of Engineers, which spells out what the Corps will work on in a given year. It was delivered to Congress in January. That’s traditionally how major projects are funded, but that has not been the case for Panther Island in recent years, and it’s not surprising it was not included in 2021.
The Trump administration was unwilling to prioritize Fort Worth’s $1.17 billion project because it said a cost-benefit analysis was needed. In 2018, the administration declared Panther Island “not policy compliant.” Locals have pointed to an economic study from the University of North Texas, which was used when Congress authorized up to $526 million for Panther Island in 2016.
The local office of the Army Corps requested nearly $39 million for this year. Officials hope to discuss funding with the Biden administration soon.
Jim Oliver, general manager of the Tarrant Regional Water District, blamed “Washington politics’‘ and the White House Office of Management and Budget, noting the Corps has kept Panther Island authorized. The water district is the local partner with the Corps and in January the agencies renewed their project agreement.
“It’s really pitiful the way it’s been working,” Oliver said. “You have an agency, the experts in the field, recommending a project, and a bunch of bureaucrats in another agency just arbitrarily knocking it out.”
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger has championed the project in Washington as a key member of the House Appropriations Committee, securing just under $62 million for it since 2006. The Star-Telegram attempted to reach Granger for comment about whether she hoped to work with the new administration or if she was looking for other ways to fund the project. Through a spokesperson she declined to comment.
A year ago, Granger told the Star-Telegram she believed Mick Mulvaney was the key hold up to the project receiving necessary funding. At the time Mulvaney was the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump.
“The Office of Management and Budget, the person who runs that is one of the most powerful people in Washington,” she said a year ago. “It was never ever used for how it’s been used today.”
Biden has nominated Neera Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, to lead his Office of Management and Budget, but the Senate has not confirmed her.
Her nomination is off to a rocky start as Republican senators chastised her for personal attacks on GOP members. She apologized this week for tweets attacking Republicans, including a comment that “vampires have more heart than Ted Cruz.”
Though it’s early in the Biden administration, a change in leadership could bring a fresh start to efforts to prioritize Panther Island, said Matt Angle, a political strategist with the Democratic-supporting The Lone Star Project. Angle is originally from Tarrant County and has tracked the project since its inception.
The project is viable and needed, he said, noting that it has remained authorized under multiple administrations. Granger has made all the right moves to prioritize the project over the years, he said, saying she is “the only Republican who can get it done,” but politically, convincing the Trump administration to fund a large infrastructure project was an uphill battle.
“The administration was not only partisan, but hostile and personal,” he said.
Biden has shown signs of wanting to invest in infrastructure, Angle said, which is a good sign for Panther Island, especially if there’s a bipartisan push for the project.
“I don’t want to pretend to know what their position is, but I think this is a real opportunity,” Angle said. “Tarrant County is really lucky that you have Marc Veasey who can work with the administration and make a case. There are no Republicans, other than Kay Granger, with credibility.”
A spokesperson for Veasey, Fort Worth’s Democratic congressman, acknowledged a request, but did not immediately return comments.
G.K. Maenius, Tarrant County Administrator, said in an email that local officials will be reaching out to the Biden administration in the coming weeks to discuss future funding. He is the chairman of the Trinity River Vision Authority board, which oversees the project locally.
“With the change in administration, we believe this presents a new opportunity for Panther Island,” he said.
Future funding
Panther Island, called the Central City Flood Control Project by the Corps, has not received money from Washington since a 2017 allocation of $6 million.
It consistently received funding until 2011, when Congress banned earmarks, the practice of appropriating funds to a specific project. The project received just $18,000 between 2011 and 2014. In 2015 nearly $17.5 million was provided.
There has been support from Republicans and Democrats to bring back earmarks.
Oliver, the water district general manager, said he thought a return to the practice would benefit Panther Island and other Texas projects that have languished without funds.
“We’re not the only one,” he said.
In 2020 the local Corps office requested about $38 million but received $1.5 million for a feasibility study. The funding stumped local officials who have maintained such a study is not needed. Another $1.5 million would have been needed from the Tarrant Regional Water District, but Panther Island’s board of directors, the Trinity River Vision Authority, voted to ignore the federal allocation last fall.
There remains a chance the project could receive funding later this year, said Mark Mazzanti, a former Corps official who now works as a consultant for the Trinity River project.
Mazzanti said he’s keeping an eye out for supplemental funding that Congress approves outside of the annual Work Plan. In 2018, several billion dollars were allocated to dozens of states for various flood control projects following a devastating year of hurricanes.
When a project has unused funds, either because it is under budget or unable to use the money, the Corps reallocates the funding to projects that are “shovel ready.” A spokesperson for the local Corps office said work can be done on Panther Island as soon as funding is available. Mazzanti wouldn’t speculate on if he thought the project would receive those funds.
“There is always a possibility because the project remains eligible,” he said.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
