May 18, 2015 11:10 AM

Richardson: BP Rider offers $1 billion train wreck for Coastal Texas

In op-ed, Quorum Report founding Editor Tim Richardson argues that Texas could do best if Gov. Abbott is allowed to operate with BP funds

A rider to HB 1 intended to grant allocation authority to the Legislative Budget Board, the Texas Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House over BP’s Deepwater Horizon fines received by Texas misconstrues how 80% of the oil fund funds will awarded.

Rider Sec. 6.24 “Deposit and Approval Requirement for Certain Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Funds” would create a special account in the Texas Treasury overseen by the State Comptroller and used for intended purposes by state agencies after proposed project expenditures are studied by the LBB (no time limit is set on the study) and approved by the chairs of Senate Appropriations, House Appropriations the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor after review for 30 business days (which is 6 weeks if there are no holidays).

The biggest problem with this scenario is that only about 20% of all BP funds will seem like a “grant to Texas” that can be mulled over and allocated. Eighty percent of the funds will be either competitively awarded among the five states (each voting in real time at RESTORE Council meetings) or overseen by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in the case of the criminal settlement funds.

The complete column from Tim Richardson can be found in the R&D Department.

By Tim Richardson