Trump plans spending cuts. Could Fort Worth’s Panther Island be on the chopping block?
The flood control portion of Fort Worth’s Panther Island did not find favor in the first Trump administration.
The project to reroute a section of the Trinity River north of downtown was viewed skeptically by former White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, leading the Trump administration to allocate only $7.5 million of the $526 million authorized by Congress in 2016.
The project was estimated to cost roughly $1.17 billion in 2017, however those costs haven’t been updated to reflect post-pandemic inflation.
There’s still a lot of unknowns about the incoming administration, but one thing is clear: It is prioritizing cuts to federal spending.
Trump has tapped Billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to form the “Department of Government Efficiency” to reduce the size of the federal government through cutting regulations and reducing the federal workforce.
The pair outlined their plans in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed that called for using a pair of recent Supreme Court decisions to rollback what they referred to as executive overreach by “unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies.”
Musk has estimated the administration could cut “at least $2 trillion” from the $6.75 trillion federal budget.
“If that’s what they seek to do, and they can get anywhere close to that number, that’ll mean a lot of projects are going to be on the chopping block,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, an associate professor of political science at the University of Houston.
It’s really too early to know how the new Trump administration will impact Panther Island specifically, but on a more general level a lot of federal spending could be cut, he said.
“It’s too early to know, but it’s not too early to worry,” said Matt Angle, the director of the Democratic-supporting Lone Star Project who is originally from Tarrant County and has tracked the project since its inception.
The only reason the project got funding under the Biden Administration was because of the respect for Fort Worth Congress members Rep. Kay Granger and Rep. Marc Veasey, Angle said.
Trump and his pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, don’t care about those relationships, Angle said.
He noted Vought’s advocacy for so-called “impoundment,” whereby the president can unilaterally withhold federal funds authorized by Congress.
Vought has also advocated for state and local governments to take on a bigger chuck of the funding when it comes to U.S. Army Corps of Engineer projects, according to a December 2022 budget proposal put out by his nonprofit the Center For Renewing America.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has allocated $443 million since 2022. The largest chunk of that funding comes from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
There are 13 components of the flood control project that still require additional funding, said Clay Church, a spokesperson for the Army Corps’ Fort Worth office, in an email to the Star-Telegram.
The bulk of the funding is needed to award construction contracts for the Samuels Avenue Dam, the southern half of the bypass channel, a pump station, and three water gates, Church said.
Church said the Corps is aiming to have design to the point where it can make accurate cost estimates by mid- to late 2025.
Church wouldn’t speculate about the impact of the incoming Trump Administration on the project, but said the Corps will continue to request funding for the project through its normal budget process.
In an email, Veasey, a Democrat from Fort Worth, wrote he is dedicated to collaborating with the new administration to make sure it is aware of the importance of the Panther Island project.
Former state Rep. Craig Goldman, a Republican from Fort Worth, won the November election to replace Granger representing Texas’ 12th Congressional District.
While Goldman is a capable legislator, Angle said, he will have less influence as a freshman member.
Goldman did not respond to an email and text message from the Star-Telegram requesting comment, but said at his election night party that his experience as a state legislator and relationships within Texas’ congressional delegation will ensure his district’s priorities don’t get overlooked.
The Army Corps will be critical at determining what happens next, said Fort Worth City council member Carlos Flores, whose district includes Panther Island.
The project has a lot of momentum, and is way past the point of being shovel ready, he said.
While a lot remains unknown, Flores said he looks forward to working with Fort Worth’s congressional delegation to ensure the project’s momentum continues.
Construction on the northern half of the bypass channel is expected to begin sometime in 2025, according to the latest quarterly update from the Tarrant Regional Water District. The estimated completion date for all phases of the project is 2032, Church said.
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