Looking forward: Branick: Industry, recovery focus for 2019
Published 10:37 pm Friday, December 28, 2018
For most of Jefferson County, much of 2018 was focused on the continuing recovery from Tropical Storm and Hurricane Harvey. The Port Arthur News asked Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick 10 questions about what the county accomplished this year and what he hopes to accomplish in 2019.
Q: What were the biggest accomplishments for post-hurricane recovery?
A: I think the biggest accomplishment was getting about $1.4 billion in aid in for temporary disaster housing, public assistance, debris removal and that kind of stuff.
One thing I’ve talked about before is in the aftermath of a natural disaster, it takes two or three months for a supplemental appropriations bill. When that’s done, the money goes over to Housing and Urban Development and they have to work with the state on a state action plan.
That takes four or five months. Once they get the state action plan, you wait four to six months for procurement of contractors. You’re 12 to 14 months down the road before you swing the first hammer at the first nail. That’s where we are. The first long-term housing mission just started four weeks ago.
My work during this coming year with our legislators, in particular our federal legislators, is going to be to try to have pre-disaster contracts in place at the federal level like we do at the state level.
We want to have a state action plan in advance of hurricane season and have contactors procured in advance of hurricane season so that we can implement a plan as opposed to spending 12 to 14 months designing and procuring.
Q: What will likely happen in terms of hazard mitigation in 2019?
A: I think you see Drainage Districts 6 and 7 applying for and being successful in getting hazard mitigation money to improve flood control. You already have a $770 million appropriation from Congress for the flood-control levee that surrounds Port Arthur and now it will up on the eastern side of Total refinery and that’s by Port Neches. DD7 is in the final stages of completing a new pump station out on Taylor Bayou.
I want to preface this by saying I think we will see flood control and drainage. It’s still going to be incumbent upon homeowners and cities to keep the ditches cleaned out so that the water can get to the drainage district. No matter how many improvements we make, we can’t engineer for a 66-inch rain. It’s not going to happen. We need to hope that never happens again.
Q: What will 2019 bring in the way of funding and development for the McFaddin Beach and coastline?
A: We have all of the funding in place. We have the permits for the eastern nine miles and we’re waiting on the permits for the western nine miles. We’ve done the three miles in between already.
We have a combination of money from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Natural Resources Damages Act and the Restore Council. All of which is BP Oil spill money. It’s slated to begin construction in August of 2019. Right now, they are doing some additional sand source analysis. It should be done by November.
Q: Are we ready to make advances in business and industrial development?
A: You see new projects that are waiting to kick off at Valero. They just have to get through a TCEQ contested case hearing because of the protest that Mr. (John) Beard filed. There are also projects going on at Total BASF, ExxonMobil Chemical, ExxonMobil Refinery. There’s been nothing announced, but there’s been plans for expansions at Motiva. We have Sempra Energy and Golden Pass LNG. I see pretty robust growth.
Q: What can we expect this year along the Sabine Neches Waterway?
A: With the fiscal year 2019 appropriation that was just made as well as the money the navigation district has been putting away, I think you’ll see about $100 million in construction along the waterway in ’19. We’re working on getting the 2020 appropriation so that we can get ready for the deepening.
Q: Talk about plans to alter overpasses on I-10. What can we expect?
A: I think you’ll see the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is the group of local officials working through the Regional Planning Commission, requesting funding for the overpass on that roadway.
Q: Is the county in good shape for Fiscal Year 2019?
A: We’re in great shape. We lost about $148 million in value on residential homesteads from damage done by Harvey.
That was a big hit, but what we saw was there was such significant spending at the home improvement stores that our sales tax offset the losses in property taxes. We remain strong at about $45 million in reserves, which is about 34 percent of our budget. We are well above what the Governmental Accounting Standards Board considers healthy reserves. We’re almost double it. I think it’s important we maintain a healthy reserve being that we are on the Gulf Coast and prone to natural disasters.
Q: With so many new industries looming, how good is our workforce? Can they take advantage of job opportunities? How can the commissioners affect this?
A: That continues to be an area where we struggle. I think we need to have more opportunities for vocational training in high schools. We need to have more of our young people taking advantage of the Union Apprenticeship Program, Associative Builders and Contractors, LIT and Lamar State College Port Arthur’s programs.
The jobs are going to be here. The question is are we going to have enough people to pass a drug test, have even soft skills that allow them to be able to interview and have the hard skills that come through a training program. I think that’s an area where opportunity exists, but we still have some challenges in making sure we are up to the task.
We’re speaking with the president of LIT about some initiatives to start reaching our children maybe even in middle school. I think it’s going to take a collaborative effort between community and business leaders to make a push towards that.
Q: The Census looms in 2020. What are the issues for Jefferson County when it comes to the Census?
A: What attracts people to areas are housing availability, cost, educational opportunities, school district quality and cost of living. I think one of the issues we need to continue to address in this legislative session is windstorm insurance reform. You can go to Beaumont and buy a house on the north side of Beaumont.
Your mortgage company will require you to have windstorm insurance. You can go two blocks down the road and cross over into Pine Island Bayou and into Hardin County and your mortgage company doesn’t require you to have windstorm insurance.
It’s ridiculous to think that the damage from a hurricane is going to be any less two blocks over. Affordability of windstorm insurance is important to young couples that are buying their first house. If they can save $300 a month by moving two blocks north, they’re going to do it. That’s a challenge that all coastal counties have.