Texas lawmakers blast river authority for 'pathetic decision' not to upgrade flood warning system

Texas lawmakers from both parties blasted Kerr County’s river authority Wednesday for choosing to cut property taxes rather than modernize its flood warning system, citing an investigation from the Houston Chronicle.

State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, told the river authority’s general manager, Tara Bushnoe, that he found the choice “extremely disturbing” during a daylong legislative hearing Wednesday. 

READ MORE: Poor coordination hampered flood response, Texas official tells lawmakers

Bushnoe was on the dais before 18 Texas Senate and House members as part of their effort to respond to floods that ravaged Central Texas on July 4 and 5, killing 108 people in Kerr County alone and at least 136 statewide. 

The Chronicle report, published Wednesday morning, found that the Upper Guadalupe River Authority was only willing to spend about $100,000 to upgrade its flood warning system after a 2016 engineering study found that a $1 million overhaul was urgently needed, even as it built up $3.4 million in reserves for an unrelated project. It later abandoned that project and began  using the extra money to lower its property tax rate.

Over two hours of questioning that stretched into the evening, legislators expressed disbelief that the UGRA not only passed on providing substantial funds for the project, but also later declined to accept an interest-free loan from the state’s Water Development Board. The agency offered to pay $50,000 and loan the remaining $950,000 at a 0% interest rate, with repayment stretched out over 30 years.

Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston, who was instrumental in the Legislature’s push this year to cut $51 billion in property taxes over the coming biennium, criticized Bushnoe for the decision not to accept the roughly $31,600 annual expenditure on the warning system over the lifetime of the proposed loan.

 "As the property tax guy in the family, this decision is just pathetic,” he said. “Because we're talking about an incremental some-odd $30,000."

Bushnoe, who had not responded to the Chronicle’s earlier requests for comment, said the authority initially declined because the state only matched 5% of the request for funding, and because officials didn’t have enough time to fully consider the offer before a key deadline. 

Asked why the authority didn’t use its own reserves, she said that they followed recommendations from the Texas Sunset Commission. The commission’s 2023 evaluation of UGRA recommended that the river authority adopt a formal policy on how to manage its reserve fund but does not include more specifics.  

State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, drilled down on the timeline of the county’s requests. Kerr County officials had first asked state officials to allow them to use federal disaster relief dollars before approaching the state water development board in 2024, but were denied the money. 

"You had the resources to deploy this system absent any FEMA grant, absent any water development loan, and I guess that’s troubling because you had the money but not the will,” Darby said. 

Bushnoe noted that the authority had originally pledged to contribute $121,000 to the project..

Houston Democratic state Rep. Ann Johnson told Bushnoe that the UGRA did not seem to be taking sufficient responsibility for flood mitigation, emphasizing that another major inundation killed 10 teenagers in 1987.

“You know that river can kill because it killed children in the 80s,” she said.

After the 1987 flooding, UGRA officials raised taxes significantly in order to pay for a flood warning system – the same one the river authority and Kerr County determined in 2016 was in need of upgrades.

The floods that hit the Hill Country nearly three weeks ago killed dozens of young girls at Camp Mystic, many of whose families live in the Houston region.

“We’ve had a number of funerals for eight year-old girls (in Houston), girls from the families that trusted and sent their children to your county,” Johnson said. 

Bushnoe repeatedly emphasized that the county has funded other critical projects, including U.S. Geological Survey gauges, which are used by the National Weather Service to predict floods. 

Nonetheless, she said, “I agree there's much room for improvement and we are working towards that."

Another joint hearing is set to take place in Kerrville on July 31. After that, lawmakers will invite the public to comment on legislative proposals.