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Speaker 1: This week's episode of the trip Cast is sponsored by

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Water Grows. All Right, hello, and welcome to the Texas

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Tribune trip Cast for January twenty eighth, twenty twenty five.

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I am Matthew Watkins, Editor in chief of the Texas Tribune.

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We are joined as usual by Eleanor Klibanoff, whose campaign

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continues to change the name of the trib Cast to

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the clib Cast.

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Speaker 2: I would say it's my campaign. I would say it's

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the people's campaign. You know, it's a one party, one

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platform issue, all right.

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Speaker 1: Well, and one supporter too, one supporter. And we have

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James Barragon, whose weekend was just ruined by the announcement

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of the State of the State speech on Sunday.

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Speaker 3: Oh, not ruined. I'm fine, all right.

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Speaker 4: Well, I mean, if you like to work on your weekends, that's.

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Speaker 3: Look on the positive side, that's the day and a

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half to.

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Speaker 4: Enjoy, all right.

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Speaker 1: So today we will be endeavoring to convince James to

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get excited about water policy. But before that, we're going

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to talk a little little bit about what's happened in

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the news this week. We have, you know, talked in

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previous episodes about you know, the obviously the Dustin Burrows's

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election to speaker, but also the campaign against him, one

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of which was around, you know, the effort to get

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rid of democratic committee chairs in the Texas House. It

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appears as though the hardline conservatives pushing for that may

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have lost the speakers race, but at least one on

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this issue that they've been pursuing for multiple legislative sessions.

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James tell us a little bit about what happened with

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the rules recently.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, surprising that you put it that way, because

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I think if you ask them, they would not see

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themselves as big winners. In fact, they said that Democrats

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have more power, which I think realistically and like objectively,

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that is not true. In the rules, it says that

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the majority party will hold committee chairmanships and the minority

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party will have vice chairmanships, so that effectively strips Democrats

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from being allowed to run committees, which is exactly what

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they wanted. Now, I think we have to be intellectually

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honest about this that it's one of the things that

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they wanted. It's the big thing that they rallied around,

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But there are a bunch of other things that those

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hardline conservatives wanted that they did not get, which is

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what they are sort of yelling about. And they're what

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they're making a big fuss about. Democrats and the Speaker.

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Burrows's Republican coalition are saying, hey, like, we gave you

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guys exactly what you wanted. The Democrat chairs are gone,

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and the hardline Conservatives are saying, well, that's just one thing.

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And I've just pulled up the contract with Texas, which

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is what they basically are saying, that they are following.

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Speaker 4: The contract to Texas. Is what the kind of more.

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Speaker 3: It's like the pledge that they came up with for

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the Conservatives, yeah, which Cook had signed and said, Cook

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being David Cook of Mansfield, the other candidate for speaker

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who lost obviously. But you know, just going down the

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list here, you only still support for speakership from Republican members.

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Obviously neither of them did that. And the practice of

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awarding Democrats with committee chairmanship, that's high, that's number two,

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and Burrows has done that. And sure all GOP legislative

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priorities receive a floor vote before any Democrat bills that

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has not been codified in the rules. Replace the current

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liberal these are their words. Liberal parliamentarians with staff committed

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to only offering advice on adherence to House rules, not

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advancing their personal ideology. They're referring to Hugh Brady, a

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Democrat who was a parliamentarian and he is gone. Now

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there is only one parliamentarian.

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Speaker 2: Which is the parliamentarian. For people who don't.

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Speaker 3: Know, parliamentariy basically interprets the rules and make sure the

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make sure makes sure that the whatever body it is

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is running according to the rules. And so there's a

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whole list of these, but you can see that there

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is like differences here right the The next one that

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I see is limiting the speaker to two terms to

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reduce their power over individual members. That also is not

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in the rules. And so what the hardliners wanted to

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do this week and last week and the rules is

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to put these things in to codify them, to say

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you were going to commit to the entire contract with Texas.

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The thing is that Burrows never committed to those things,

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and so they can say, but this is the contract

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that we had committed to. Burrows never committed to. So

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there's like truth in both spaces. But I think overall

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to your initial question is like, what are we going

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to see. I think we have to be again intellectually

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honest and say there's going to be a more conservative

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session no matter which way you slice it.

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Speaker 1: Well, James, I mean we're sort of a broken record

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on this, but you have continuously made the point on

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this podcast that this is less about ideal ideology and

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more about power, right, And you know, I think we

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have to ask the question, is this situation where if

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I wonder if Burrows is asking this question too, Like,

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if he gives this group what they want on one thing,

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are they just going to start then saying I want

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this instead, you know? And if the point is to

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be kind of going after this speaker and they seem

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kind of committed to doing that throughout this legislative session,

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is is this a sort of impossible battle to win

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in terms of getting the support and getting people to say,

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you know, be happy with his speakership this session?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 3: I am not in Burrows' head, so I wouldn't know.

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But what we've seen with previous speakers is they said

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Joe Strauss is too liberal and he only gives us

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a little bit of red meat so that some members

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can go back to their districts and say they passed

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conservative legislation and then the rest of us get shut out.

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So then Straus steps down. Bonnin comes in, he's clearly

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a more conservative speaker. He goes further to the right,

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and then they say this guy's not conservative enough. Then

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he goes down. Feelim comes in, he's more conservative, passes

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more conservative legislation and they say he is not conservative enough.

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Comes in and they're saying he's not conservative enough. Each

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of these guys has gone consistently more and more conservative,

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and it's just never enough for the hard right. That

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is their prerogative and that is what they say their

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voters come to represent. But they will keep fighting that

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fight until the cows come home.

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Speaker 1: I think, well, it's also interesting, as you have listed

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this kind of progression of more conservative speakers, that faction

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that's been unhappy with that leadership in the hard right

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has grown during that time as well. You know, so

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kind of an interesting dynamic there what's gone.

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Speaker 3: Through waves, hasn't it like the Freedom Caucus was, you know,

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they they certainly were very active in twenty seventeen, and

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then they kind of waned, I think thanks to Speaker

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Bondon who really managed the Chamber and the inter chamber relationships. Well,

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and then they've popped back up. I don't know. I

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think it's come and gone. But certainly this year there

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are more people, more lawmakers aligned with that view. Okay,

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that's for multiple reasons.

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Speaker 1: Quickly, before we move on what impact on governing? Does

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not having democratic chairs have this legislative session?

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Speaker 4: If any?

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think the conservatives are right. Democrats leading

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committees obviously helps Democrats. You think about things, and I've

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come up with a few examples. You think about in

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twenty twenty one, Herald Dunton leading public education in the

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twenty twenty one second special Session, he refused to advance

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legislation that restricted transgender student athletes, and there was a

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lot of pressure coming from the Lieutenant governor to pass that.

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That was SB two in that special session, clearly a

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priority bill. That bill got killed in twenty twenty one.

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You think about Chairman Pancho Navarrees in twenty nineteen saying

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there wouldn't be a hearing on open Caerry legislation because

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some gun rights activists had gone and bothered lawmakers at

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their homes, which is pretty reprehensible, but Pancho says, no

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more of that and it's done. Obviously, that legislation later passed,

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but it was blocked. You think of people like Missus

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t and Fronie Thompson and Houston in twenty nineteen leading

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public at public education, I'm sorry, public health, and so

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then the abortional legislation stops going to public health and

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starts going to the state affairs. I mean, there clearly

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is a stopper, and this is the way representative government works, right,

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so I think there will be an impact. I think

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to ignore these concerns that the Conservatives are saying is

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to not be honest about this. But it's also fair

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to say that this is representative government and just because

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they're the minority government doesn't mean that they should be

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completely shut out, which is I think what Borrows is

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trying to get out with these vice chairs and these

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sub committees, which will have to wait and see what

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impact they actually have. But the Conservatives are obviously concerned

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about that because they think that's a run around. No

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charite for Democrats.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, ultimately, I mean, when you're a committee chair, you

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know every bill has to go through a committee in

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the House for it reaches the full floor. When your

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committee chair you can control what comes up for a hearing.

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A lot of bills get rewritten in committee, so there

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is a considerable amount of power there for sure. All Right,

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I want to talk next about both chambers filing their

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baseline budgets for the legislative session.

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Speaker 3: This is Matthew's favorite day of the year.

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Speaker 1: I do you know again, the budget the most important

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bill of the session every year, even though it maybe

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doesn't cause as much excitement as a lot of the

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other ones. Eleanor what were the highlights that you saw?

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Speaker 2: Well, I will say and just a brief anecdote to

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get inside the mind of Matthew Watkins. Two years ago

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when we were at this point, I remember our former

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colleague Karen Brooks Harper came to me and was like,

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Matthew has asked me to cover the budget. And I

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was like, it's like when a cat brings you a

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mouse as a present and you're like, thank you, I

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don't want that, but I know it came with love.

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You love the budget. Karen actually does love the budget.

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Also a nerd, I would say, you know, the budget

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is the only thing the Texas Ledges has to pass.

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They could pass that, they could go home it's an idea.

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I think they should consider it. But assuming they're not

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going to do that. I mean, the budget has, like

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all the high priority items, I think a lot of

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it was not a huge surprise. They are, as how

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Speaker Boroughs said, substantially identical between the House and the Senate. Obviously,

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the working out the details is what you know, will

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take up most of the session. I think the big

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thing we were seeing is, you know, a big increase

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in funding for vouchers. You know, this has obviously been

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a Conservative priority for a long time. Seems like they've

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got the votes this session, and this increase in funding

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definitely makes it seem like, you know, they don't want

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to take a half step into vouchers, they want to

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run into that pretty significantly. And then also as sort

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of promised funding increases for public education to go into

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that increases for teachers rural teachers, which we should say

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the teacher groups feel like is not is still not enough.

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So figure out how to balance those two things. The

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one thing I will say, in my universe, in the

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health world, that's like a very big deal, a very

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small line item comparably to some of these big numbers.

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But the Texas Health and Human Services Commission has asked

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for three hundred million dollars to improve their Medicaid enrollment system,

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which is in the health world a huge deal. We've

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written a decent amount about that, and so that made

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it into both budgets, and I think people are pretty

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optimistic that that's going to happen.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know.

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Speaker 1: I think two things you look for in those base budgets,

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which can very much change and will change over the

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coming months, are where this is there agreement right, Where

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do they have similar amounts of money, Where are their

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difference is, and how does that change compared to previous years.

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So we saw both both chambers two point five billion

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dollars to spend on broadband expansion in the state, two

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point five billion dollars to spend on water infrastructure we'll

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talk more about that later, five billion dollars on the grid,

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three point five billion dollars to go toward property taxes,

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and as you mentioned, a billion dollars for school vouchers,

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which is double what was in the budget last session

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five hundred million dollars. We also saw a voucher bill

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get filed in the Senate that kind of laid out

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at least the Senates proposal for what that would be. Again,

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we're talking about spending double the amount of money, the

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proposal being ten thousand dollars to give you know, basically

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parents who want to send their kids to private school,

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maybe around two thousand dollars for parents who are going

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to homeschool their kids, things like that. They would prioritize

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low income children and kids with disabilities in that range.

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When you talk about ten thousand dollars per student, you're

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talking about, you know, funding for around one hundred thousand

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students in that realm. Worth noting, there's an estimated two

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hundred and ninety thousand private school students in Texas right now.

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So even though it is a a significant increase in

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what they wanted to spend last year, it's still not

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enough to cover the students who are already in Texas

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public schools. So I think one question that will come

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up if that is indeed how much they end up spending,

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is will there then be immediate demand to spend more

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in upcoming sessions from there?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's definitely. Like, I mean, obviously, through

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as we've talked about previous episodes like Strategic Winning of

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certain seats, Like these policies have the numbers. It seems

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like it seems like Voucher's is going to happen this session.

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That doesn't mean that, Like the way the bill is

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written today is like everyone agrees, we all shake hands, and.

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Speaker 3: We go home.

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Speaker 2: Like there's a lot of this to sort out, and

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you know, Texas legislators are not overly fond of spending money,

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so you know, the more expensive this starts to look,

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obviously it's still going to get the support, but there

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might be sort.

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Speaker 3: Of more guards on the borders, and they're very happy.

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Speaker 2: Actually there's a lot of things they want to spend

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money on.

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Speaker 3: But I think that the agreement on the one billion

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dollars is huge too. I was just trying to look

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up here the tweet from the governor where he sort

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of tweeted out approvingly of the billion dollar budget, and

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he said something like, I can't find the tweet right now,

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but like, you know, this is a great start, and

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I think the indication that the Senate and the House

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are both out of billion dollars shows you that the

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governor is also involved in sort of the settling on

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that number. So I'm not sure that is actually going

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to change.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how does this bode for I mean there is

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I took notice about how much agreement there was on

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these big ticket items. How much does this bode for

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the ability of the Speaker and the Lieutenant Governor to

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get along this legislative session.

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Speaker 4: Well, go for it.

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Speaker 3: I found it interesting. Obviously, Lieutenant Governor Patrick was very

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critical or perhaps not critical. Yeah, I mean he was

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critical at Burroughs, he was critical at Burrows, and he

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was clearly very supportive of Cook saying that he was

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the House GOP Caucus nominee. Right, But in the aftermath

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of the action, I've sort of seen like him leaving

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the door open and saying like Burrows will have the

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opportunity to prove that he is going to be the

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most conservative speaker. And Burrows, i think, compared to Feelin,

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is like a player, and he is like he knows

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the chamber, he knows the inter chamber relationships. He's been

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involved in a lot of these negotiations. I think he's

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going to be a lot more forceful and perhaps tactful

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and how he deals both handling interchamber inter chamber battles

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and intra chamber battles, So I'm kind of curious to

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see how that plays out. The litank Nuver has kind

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of backed off a little bit, I think yeah.

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Speaker 2: And also, I mean last session, obviously there was a

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great discord between perhaps the three, the big three, and

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you know, I think Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has shown

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a willingness to sort of, you know, hold out and

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not necessarily play nice with the other chamber. But also,

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as he has noted, you know, his chamber has repeatedly

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passed a lot of these top priority legislations and a

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top parity legislation and it gets stalled out in the House.

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And so you know, is it perhaps in his best

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interest to try to play nice with the House speaker

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when there is widespread agreement on a lot of this.

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Speaker 3: I just would say yes. And looking ahead, State of

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the State address is on Sunday. As you previously mentioned,

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the Governor is going to come out with his emergency items.

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Lieutenant Governor Patrick has said, we've got to go, we've

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got to get moving on these things. And the House

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is known typically for rolling a little bit slower, rolling

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a little bit slower, and so it'll be curious to

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see once the Senate because I have no doubt that

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the Senate will hit the ground running and get going

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on a bunch of these things. How quickly the House

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will move, And I think if the House doesn't move

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as quickly as the Lieutenant Governor wants it, then you

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might see some of this tension start to build up.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it's probably safe to assume

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that school vouchers will be an emergency item which will

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allow the legislature to move more quickly. The I believe

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as we are recording this, the Senate is having a

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hearing on the bill, and I you know, once that

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speech happens on Friday and I mean Sunday and it

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is declared an emergency item, the Senate I would expect,

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will move, you know, in early February to pass that bill.

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So we could be in a situation where, you know,

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this this aspect of the legislature is decided quite quickly.

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So James, as already mentioned, on Sunday, you will be

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doing your favorite Sunday activity of covering.

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Speaker 3: You were Lord's Days people.

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Speaker 2: You are jubilant.

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Speaker 4: What else do you expect from that? What are you

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watching for?

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Speaker 3: I'm curious to see what we do with border stuff. Obviously,

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Republicans have a partner now in the federal government, but

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there's still a lot of money dedicated in the budget

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for border security and immigration enforcement, so I wonder what

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will happen there. I'm also curious there's always been this

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ongoing issue of bail reform and I think election integrity.

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I don't have a whole lot of insight into the governor,

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but yeah, I'm curious about those issues because they've been

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things that he's been very supportive of in the past.

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But yeah, I'm kind of curious because there's been so

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much focus on vouchers that I wonder what else he's

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sort of been thinking about. And also, one more thing,

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we talk about this sort of line that the governor

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walks between, you know, traditional Republicans who are more business

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friendly and think about things like infrastructure, which I know

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we're going to talk about next, and the social conservatives

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who want to fight a lot about LGBT rights and

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abortion and all these things. Right, So I wonder what

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he will signal in sort of his attempt to walk

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that line.

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Speaker 1: Well, speaking of wanting to know what people are thinking,

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we would also like to know what our audience is thinking.

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We were interested in possibly answering some questions or topic

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discussing topics that people send in. So if you have

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any comments, questions, thoughts for the trip cast, things you'd

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like us to discuss, shoot us an email trip Cast

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at Texastribune dot org. If you happen to be the

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governor and you're listening, you know you were also welcome.

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Speaker 3: You are welcome in boxes invited too.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: In fact, we would give you the you know, the

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welcome of the century.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but you also don't have to be the governor,

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so so right in all right, Well, we are going

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to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors.

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Speaker 4: Eleanor is going.

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Speaker 1: To hop off because she has another speaking engagement, but

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we're going to talk about water after that. See you later, Eleanor,

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Thank you so much. Water grows our food economy and future.

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00:19:48,279 --> 00:19:51,559
Discover how Texas farmers make strides to make water last

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00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,880
for Texans now and for generations to come more at

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00:19:54,960 --> 00:20:00,000
Water Grows dot Org. Okay, Texas summers might seem hot

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and dry now, but the worst it was even worse

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in the nineteen fifties. Between nineteen forty nine and nineteen

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fifty seven, Texas received between thirty percent and fifty percent

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less rainfall as during normal years. The drought wiped out

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half of the state's farming industry. More than a thousand

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cities and communities had to implement water use restriction restrictions

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during that time. It's now referred to as the drought

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of record in Texas, and Texas uses that time as

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a benchmark to measure the sufficiency of its water infrastructure

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moving forward. Jeremy Maser, who is our guest right now,

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director of Natural Resources and Infrastructure Policy at the Texas

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twenty thirty six think tank, recently assessed that readiness and

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the results were not encouraging, at least from my eye.

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Jeremy is our guest. Welcome, Thank you for joining us.

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Speaker 5: Matthew James, thank you so much for having me here.

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It's great to be here this morning.

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Speaker 1: Right, so great to have you. Let's talk about this

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nineteen fifties type drought situation, because you wrote a report

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on this, and you led the report basically saying that

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we could potentially see some major damage we see another

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drought like that in the future, lay out for us

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that scenario, that sort of worst case scenario we could face.

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Speaker 3: So we Texas.

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Speaker 5: Twenty thirty six, we released a report assessing Texas water

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infrastructure needs and those basically fall into two buckets.

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Speaker 3: First, we need to expand.

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Speaker 5: Our water supply portfolio for drought prone and growing state.

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We can talk more about this later, but droughts are

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part of the Texas experience. If you've been here for

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a year, ten years, a century, you know we're drought

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proman state. The second bucket of challenges we face relates

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to the issues of aging, deteriorating drinking water and waste

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water systems. And thanks of the Texas Tribune, you guys

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have covered a lot of stories across the state from

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East Texas to West Texas, even in the Valley of aging,

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deteriorating systems that are failing, falling apart and leaking and

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really becoming liabilities to the communities that they serve. But

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starting with a drought issue and the need to expand

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our water supplies. So in the nineteen fifties, we had

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this drought of record, and that was the worst recorded drought.

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Speaker 1: It's worse since like eighteen ninety five or something like that.

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I started recording, Yeah, we started.

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Speaker 5: Recording in eighteen ninety fourteen ninety five year righte. And

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there were droughts around World War One and the nineteen thirties,

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which is with the Dutch dust Bowl, But the nineteen

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fifties drought was pretty unique in terms of its duration

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and its severity. And what was remarkablet that drought It

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really prompted two things to start happening in Texas. First,

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it began our campaign of water planning and aggressively developing

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more water supplies, principally water wells and reservoirs. But the

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nineteen fifties drought also began this huge economic and cultural

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shift in the Texas where we became we started becoming

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less of an rural agrarian state, and a lot of

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people started moving towards them the cities. And so I

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think you know cities where the more majority of people

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live today. That trend started during the drive up record

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of the nineteen fifties.

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Speaker 1: Right And so you, like you said, you identified kind

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of two different needs that the state has in order

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to meet this. One is sort of finding new water

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supply in the state. The other is fixing those broken

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water and wastewater systems. The total that you put together,

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I believe in this report or your team put together

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is that we in order to do those two things

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sufficiently to be prepared for a nineteen fifties type drought,

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we would need to spend one hundred and fifty four

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billion dollars over the next fifty years.

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Speaker 6: That's right, Matthew. What we did is we looked at

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the cost.

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Speaker 5: Estimates in the state Water Plan as well as those

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from the EPA on how much needs to be spent

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over the next couple decades for fixing and rehabilitating, our aging,

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deciorating drinking water and wastewater systems. And when we adjusted

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those numbers, those cost estimates for inflation, we see that

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the state is going to need to spend at least

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one hundred and fifty four billion dollars over the next

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half centuries on water infrastructure. But the good news is

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we have some existing programs that are already working to

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provide financial assistance, such as the Texas Water Fund approved

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by voters and Propositions six last year, the State Water

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Implementation Fund for Texas that voters approved eleven years ago.

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But these existing funds are only going to be able

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to provide according to estimates, about forty to forty five

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billion dollars worth of long term financial assistance. Say that

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emergan about forty to forty five billion dollars in the

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long run of financial assistance, And so we're seeing that

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there's going to be a big financial assistance funding gap

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to just north of one hundred and ten billion dollars

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of what the state really needs to pony up to

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invest in order to fix our waterf structured challenges.

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Speaker 4: How did we get so far behind? Here? Is it?

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Speaker 1: I mean, Texas obviously a place that's growing a lot.

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How much is this growth, how much of it is

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under investment in the past. What's what put us in

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this position in twenty twenty?

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Speaker 3: And are we an out are we in an outlier

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00:25:16,839 --> 00:25:17,839
compared to other states?

480
00:25:18,839 --> 00:25:21,559
Speaker 5: Well, I you know other I think what's unique about

481
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,400
Texas is, you know, unlike other states such as Florida,

482
00:25:25,519 --> 00:25:29,119
New York, you know, Illinois, they really don't have drought

483
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:30,640
and water supply issues like we do.

484
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,799
Speaker 6: I think, you know, our water supply.

485
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,480
Speaker 5: Challenges are certainly analogous to what's being seen in the

486
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:41,680
desert southwest with California, Arizona, and New Mexico, which is

487
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:44,319
which is in the in the throes of actually a

488
00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,759
mega drought right now. But I think also the issues

489
00:25:47,799 --> 00:25:51,160
that we have with ageing, deteriorating drinking water and wastewater systems,

490
00:25:51,799 --> 00:25:55,240
those are not just a Texas problem. I mean those

491
00:25:55,279 --> 00:25:59,119
also exist in Florida, California, from from coast to coast.

492
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:02,440
Speaker 6: But Matthew, you asked, how did, how did how? How

493
00:26:02,559 --> 00:26:02,759
is it?

494
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 4: How has it?

495
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 6: Why has it come to this?

496
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:08,559
Speaker 5: And I think there are several factors that have been

497
00:26:08,599 --> 00:26:14,000
accelerating and aggravating our water infrastructure challenges. First, when we

498
00:26:14,039 --> 00:26:16,359
look at the data, such as studies we've done in

499
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:22,119
partnership with the off state climatologists, we're seeing that droughts

500
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:27,839
and extreme heat are accelerating the strains on our water supplies.

501
00:26:28,319 --> 00:26:31,039
The hotter it gets, the quicker your lakes and reservoirs

502
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:31,640
dry up.

503
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 6: Uh.

504
00:26:32,759 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 5: You know, the less rain that we have means that

505
00:26:34,759 --> 00:26:37,680
there's less water in those surface water resources, but also

506
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:38,720
means that we're drawing a.

507
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:40,519
Speaker 6: Lot more from our groundwater.

508
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:45,279
Speaker 5: And so what's happening with the weather has been accelerating

509
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,440
the strains on water supplies. There's also the issue of

510
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:52,440
population and economic growth. If you talk with water policy people,

511
00:26:52,839 --> 00:26:54,720
they're going to say there's a lot of people coming

512
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:56,839
to Texas and they're not bringing water with them.

513
00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 6: That's true, but there's also.

514
00:26:59,039 --> 00:27:05,079
Speaker 5: A a unique expansion in water intensive industries in Texas

515
00:27:05,079 --> 00:27:08,400
as part of the Texas economic miracle, where you have

516
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:13,000
a growth in the energy sector, semiconductor manufacturers, data centers,

517
00:27:13,079 --> 00:27:15,960
just to name a few, that all have to use

518
00:27:16,039 --> 00:27:20,200
water resources in order to work. And the state's political

519
00:27:20,319 --> 00:27:23,720
economy as such is that's very attractive for these industries

520
00:27:23,759 --> 00:27:27,279
and businesses to move here, which is good economic growth

521
00:27:27,319 --> 00:27:31,480
and jobs, but that's also accelerating the strains on our

522
00:27:31,599 --> 00:27:34,599
water resources. And then the last issue is Matthew's you

523
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:39,559
pointed to in your question. The state's financial assistance policy

524
00:27:39,799 --> 00:27:43,240
has been incremental over time, and so what we haven't

525
00:27:43,279 --> 00:27:49,079
really seen as a sustained, concerted, reliable effort to address

526
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,599
these long term funding needs for water infrastructure.

527
00:27:54,599 --> 00:27:57,039
Speaker 1: You touched a little bit on the economic impact of this,

528
00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,079
and I want to dig a little bit deeper in there.

529
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:01,119
You you talk about it a little bit in your

530
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:06,640
report about how a lot of the big infrastructure commercial investments,

531
00:28:07,079 --> 00:28:10,680
industrial investments in the state recently have been accompanied by

532
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:16,079
communities where those investments have happened really, you know, taking

533
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,799
big steps to increase their long term water supply, things

534
00:28:19,799 --> 00:28:22,960
like the Samsung plant north of Austin and things like that.

535
00:28:24,319 --> 00:28:26,400
One of the things you really talk about is that

536
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,079
if this is felt, you know, I mean, you know,

537
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,279
we've seen communities go through water crisis. Is you truck

538
00:28:33,279 --> 00:28:36,680
in water from other places, you get water bottles and

539
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:38,759
everything like that. But what you could really see is

540
00:28:38,799 --> 00:28:43,319
a reluctance for companies and organizations to invest in the

541
00:28:43,359 --> 00:28:46,559
state if that water is not done. You say, if

542
00:28:46,599 --> 00:28:49,400
we see another nineteen fifties strought, we could see losses

543
00:28:50,599 --> 00:28:54,640
annual GDP losses of one hundred and sixty billion dollars,

544
00:28:55,319 --> 00:28:58,480
nearly eight hundred thousand jobs lost, and what you describe

545
00:28:58,519 --> 00:29:01,200
as a potential exodus from the state if we don't

546
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:05,000
address these needs. What does it actually look like for

547
00:29:05,119 --> 00:29:11,160
Texas if we don't meet the water demand needs going forward?

548
00:29:11,839 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 5: There's extraordinary downside risk if we fail to develop the

549
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,200
water infrastructure that we need a lot of that's described

550
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:24,279
in the report that I wrote with Texas twenty thirty six.

551
00:29:24,799 --> 00:29:26,759
Speaker 3: Also, it's explored in more.

552
00:29:26,599 --> 00:29:29,359
Speaker 5: Detail by a report by Gabe Collins with A Baker

553
00:29:29,359 --> 00:29:32,680
Institute at Rice University, who we also partnered with to

554
00:29:33,119 --> 00:29:37,680
explore the economic costs and benefits of water infrastructure investment,

555
00:29:38,319 --> 00:29:41,680
and so we know what would likely be the potential

556
00:29:41,759 --> 00:29:45,599
economic losses in terms of millions of jobs lost, a

557
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:49,079
diaspora of people leaving the state looking for opportunity and

558
00:29:49,119 --> 00:29:52,559
potentially water elsewhere, and not to mention the one hundred

559
00:29:52,599 --> 00:29:56,920
and sixty plus billion dollars per year in GDP losses,

560
00:29:57,039 --> 00:30:01,359
which were comparison is worse than the economic losses observed

561
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,440
during the COVID pandemic and the Great Recession. But there

562
00:30:05,519 --> 00:30:08,480
are some fascinating examples that we point to in our

563
00:30:08,519 --> 00:30:14,839
report of what inadequate water infrastructure has meant for other economies.

564
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,640
Australia saw some negative growth in its GDP during the

565
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:24,720
Millennial Drought between the early twenty and twenty fifteen. Same

566
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:28,839
thing for Cape Town, South Africa. And there are some

567
00:30:29,319 --> 00:30:32,559
fascinating examples from the rest of the world of how

568
00:30:32,599 --> 00:30:36,839
not only you actually realize and see this economic downturn,

569
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:41,200
but there's also cases of businesses and industries shutting down

570
00:30:41,319 --> 00:30:47,319
and not working anymore absent absent drought and reliable water

571
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:51,680
supplies are increasingly becoming a part of the economic development

572
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:55,240
equation in Texas. When I've been talking with state leaders,

573
00:30:55,519 --> 00:30:57,079
a lot of them are saying, like, Hey, we're talking

574
00:30:57,079 --> 00:30:59,000
with companies they want to come to Texas. They're like

575
00:30:59,079 --> 00:31:01,880
so many things here. The question we're getting asked is

576
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:03,559
if we have enough reliable water.

577
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,839
Speaker 1: Right And we've seen this in some ways kind of

578
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:09,680
already start to play out in regions this day. The

579
00:31:09,759 --> 00:31:11,279
talk a little bit about what's happening in the Rio

580
00:31:11,279 --> 00:31:11,920
Grand Valley.

581
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:17,480
Speaker 5: The Rio Grand Valley comes in and out of trouble

582
00:31:17,559 --> 00:31:19,279
almost like every two years.

583
00:31:19,279 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 6: I mean twenty twenty two. August of that year, the

584
00:31:23,599 --> 00:31:24,720
water levels in.

585
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:28,359
Speaker 5: Lake Amistan and Lake Falcone were at precipitous lows, and

586
00:31:28,839 --> 00:31:31,839
city managers were looking at emergency measures they may have

587
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:37,839
to implement in order to avoid cutting people off of water. Fortunately,

588
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:41,160
a tropical depression came over, put a bunch of water

589
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:43,640
in the river, saved the day for a little while.

590
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:48,440
But again in twenty twenty four, low water conditions in

591
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,400
the Rio Grand Valley have begun to precipitate some real

592
00:31:52,559 --> 00:31:57,759
economic consequences. Notably when a year ago the Santa Rosa

593
00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:02,960
sugar mill closed, and that is a business that provided

594
00:32:03,039 --> 00:32:05,720
you know, over five hundred jobs within the region and

595
00:32:05,759 --> 00:32:10,759
about five hundred million plus in regional GDP. In addition

596
00:32:10,839 --> 00:32:14,359
to seeing that that that farm close, were the sugar

597
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:17,799
cane farm closed, we're also seeing that we're also hearing

598
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:21,880
that the citrus industry is under duress due to drought conditions.

599
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:26,039
And I think the Rio Grande Valley is becoming a

600
00:32:26,039 --> 00:32:28,559
bit of a canary in the coal mine for Texas

601
00:32:28,559 --> 00:32:31,279
in terms of describing what can happen, when, what will

602
00:32:31,319 --> 00:32:34,680
go wrong, and what economic horrors will be visited on

603
00:32:34,759 --> 00:32:38,079
your region if you have insufficient water supplies.

604
00:32:39,319 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the two quick kind of

605
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,440
areas that need investment very quickly. One, as we already

606
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:49,039
mentioned water supplies. You know this actual water you know

607
00:32:49,519 --> 00:32:53,640
that the state needs to draw from. You've you listed

608
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,640
the water supply deficit as being nearly six point nine

609
00:32:56,839 --> 00:33:01,240
million acre feet of water. For people to understand, one

610
00:33:01,359 --> 00:33:05,079
acre foot serves around two to three houses per year,

611
00:33:05,279 --> 00:33:07,960
So if you're six point nine million acre feet short,

612
00:33:08,079 --> 00:33:12,279
you're talking about somewhere around like seventeen million your short

613
00:33:12,319 --> 00:33:15,759
the shortage being about enough to serve seventeen million houses

614
00:33:16,279 --> 00:33:19,480
per year. In that realm. Of course, it's more than

615
00:33:19,519 --> 00:33:22,000
just houses that draw from the water. It's you know,

616
00:33:22,799 --> 00:33:26,839
in industry and agriculture and everything like that. But what

617
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,880
are the solutions there? I mean, obviously you need to

618
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,079
invest money, but is that money to build reservoirs like

619
00:33:33,599 --> 00:33:37,400
desalination like what is what actually needs to be built

620
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:41,160
and done in this state in order to get to

621
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:43,960
where we need to be for that supply.

622
00:33:44,359 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 5: So our six point nine million projected six point nine

623
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,519
million acre foot water supply deficit comes from the most

624
00:33:51,559 --> 00:33:55,559
recent state water plan prepared by the Texas Water Development Board.

625
00:33:56,559 --> 00:33:59,839
What needs to happen is the state needs to invest

626
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:05,000
in a broad, diversified water supply portfolio. And some of

627
00:34:05,039 --> 00:34:08,360
these projects are going to be the same types of

628
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:11,519
water supply technologies they used in the Roman Empire, your

629
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,480
groundwater wells and your reservoirs. But I think a lot

630
00:34:15,519 --> 00:34:20,079
of those types of easier water supply projects relatively easier

631
00:34:20,679 --> 00:34:23,119
are I mean, a lot of those have already been built,

632
00:34:23,199 --> 00:34:26,159
and so there's not a lot of easier water to develop.

633
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,800
I think we're going to have to lean into technology

634
00:34:31,039 --> 00:34:35,599
innovation and water supply diversification in order to meet that

635
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:40,079
six point nine million, six point nine million acre foot

636
00:34:40,159 --> 00:34:42,599
water supply deficit, and so we're going to be talking

637
00:34:42,599 --> 00:34:46,199
about greater water conservation. I think water reuse in recycling

638
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,039
is exciting that can be done, that can expand the

639
00:34:49,039 --> 00:34:50,199
water supply portfolio.

640
00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:51,519
Speaker 6: And we're also going to.

641
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:56,559
Speaker 5: Talk about desalination, seawater and brackish water. But also we

642
00:34:56,599 --> 00:35:00,360
need to have a bigger conversation about moving water from

643
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,960
the water rich areas of the state to the areas

644
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:04,000
that needed the most.

645
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,199
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's where I think some of the politics

646
00:35:06,199 --> 00:35:10,880
come into play. It's not just is there support to

647
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:13,800
spending this kind of money, right, It's like whenever there's

648
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:16,119
an idea to build a reservoir in the state, there's

649
00:35:16,159 --> 00:35:19,079
a lot of landowner resistance. Whenever a company, you know,

650
00:35:19,119 --> 00:35:22,599
whether a city wants to pipe in water from you know,

651
00:35:22,639 --> 00:35:24,800
across the state, you hear a lot of concern about

652
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:28,639
the local uh, you know, the people who are local

653
00:35:28,679 --> 00:35:30,559
there saying, you know, why are they taking water away

654
00:35:30,599 --> 00:35:31,360
from our community?

655
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:31,559
Speaker 4: Right?

656
00:35:31,679 --> 00:35:34,800
Speaker 1: Exactly how much of that is a hurdle? Do you

657
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:36,639
feel like in addition to just the spending, and.

658
00:35:36,639 --> 00:35:40,119
Speaker 3: Also with desalination, I mean, how effective is desalination, and

659
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:44,440
is there concern from lawmakers about the efficiency of desalination,

660
00:35:44,679 --> 00:35:47,239
like going forward, like if you invest billions of dollars

661
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:49,960
in desalination, Yeah, how efficient will that?

662
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 5: Actually, well it's a Matthew will start with you, then

663
00:35:53,079 --> 00:35:56,039
James will talk about de cell and so you know,

664
00:35:56,559 --> 00:35:59,440
I've followed water policy and the legislature for the past

665
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,960
twenty five years. And what's interesting is like all of

666
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,400
those water policy fights are regional and local.

667
00:36:06,519 --> 00:36:08,880
Speaker 6: They don't really break down on partisan lines.

668
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 5: And there are some regions that are fiercely protective of

669
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:18,960
their water resources for good reason. That supports the regional identity,

670
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:24,199
that supports their regional economy, and the prospect of moving

671
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:28,320
water from one part of the state to another is

672
00:36:28,639 --> 00:36:31,400
easier say it said that done. The same thing with reservoirs.

673
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:33,280
I mean, there have been some reservoirs on the books

674
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:36,800
for decades that have still not been built, but are

675
00:36:37,119 --> 00:36:42,679
are just politically challenging to develop, owing two concerns about

676
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:47,320
water supply development or even condemning condemning that land. James,

677
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,480
you asked about desalination and what are what are legislators

678
00:36:50,519 --> 00:36:54,639
thinking about desalination? I would say that Over the past

679
00:36:54,679 --> 00:36:59,519
twenty years, there has been a growing crescendo of interest

680
00:36:59,559 --> 00:37:04,039
in dec salnation among within within the within the House,

681
00:37:04,599 --> 00:37:09,159
incentate leaders in the legislature. Desalination has the benefit of

682
00:37:09,159 --> 00:37:11,280
being a little bit more drought proof. There's I mean,

683
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:14,079
unless a meteor hits it, there's always gonna be water

684
00:37:14,159 --> 00:37:16,079
in the Gulf of Mexico, which is a good thing.

685
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:21,360
But it's always been expensive to do in energy intensive

686
00:37:21,519 --> 00:37:25,880
and so I think the the load demands of desalination

687
00:37:26,039 --> 00:37:29,559
plants are something that need to be taken into consideration,

688
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:34,159
especially as we have increasing load demands across our electric grid,

689
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:39,280
as our economy and population continues to grow. There is opportunity,

690
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:44,239
there is promise in desalination. Will it be the panacea

691
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:48,639
or silver bullet that solves every region's problems? That that

692
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:51,960
probably We're probably not at the scale and position to

693
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,880
do that yet, But desalination is going to be playing

694
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:57,800
more of a robust part in contributing to a water

695
00:37:57,840 --> 00:37:58,840
supply portfolio.

696
00:37:59,519 --> 00:38:02,280
Speaker 1: And then the other part of this to actually maybe

697
00:38:02,559 --> 00:38:05,440
the more expensive part of this is just the pipes

698
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,920
that are in the ground across Texas are crumbling. They're

699
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,480
starting to break down, some of that is in fact

700
00:38:11,639 --> 00:38:14,760
worsened when drought comes and it causes the ground to shift.

701
00:38:15,079 --> 00:38:17,840
But I mean, you've identified ninety five billion dollars to

702
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:21,400
fix broken water and waste water systems. There's an astounding

703
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,880
amount of water leaking out of pipes in Texas that's

704
00:38:25,159 --> 00:38:28,480
causing waste and causing us to need more supply.

705
00:38:28,599 --> 00:38:30,039
Speaker 4: Tell us a little bit about that situation.

706
00:38:30,199 --> 00:38:33,519
Speaker 5: Yeah, So this this is data from the Texas Living

707
00:38:33,559 --> 00:38:38,719
Waters Project, which which found that our aging, deteriorating, leaking,

708
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:43,079
drinking water systems leak enough water five hundred and seventy

709
00:38:43,079 --> 00:38:46,039
two thousand acre feet to be exact to fill a

710
00:38:46,199 --> 00:38:50,719
major state reservoir like Possum Kingdom up north, like Buchanan

711
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:55,800
here in central Texas. So our inefficiencies alone are just

712
00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:59,960
shoving water supplies out the window, and so we're waste

713
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:03,239
a lot to begin with. But then we have these

714
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:07,239
bigger issues of aging, deteriorating and failing systems. And the

715
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,679
Tribune has done a great job of providing coverage of

716
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:13,039
incidents that have ocurred over the past few years, such

717
00:39:13,039 --> 00:39:16,159
as the boil water notices and water condamination in the Rato.

718
00:39:17,119 --> 00:39:20,199
The thirty five year old trunk line that broke in

719
00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:24,039
and Odessa, leaving the town without water for forty eight hours.

720
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:28,480
Even the system failure in Zavala. Y'all's coverage of these

721
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:32,280
water system failures has been impressive and it provides very

722
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:36,599
good anecdotal data with regard to this bigger problem of

723
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:40,639
systems that are operating well past their useful life and

724
00:39:40,679 --> 00:39:43,760
are really becoming economic liabilities to these communities.

725
00:39:44,400 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: And the EPA has estimated that this cities need about

726
00:39:50,039 --> 00:39:53,559
sixty one point three billion dollars in financial assistance over

727
00:39:53,599 --> 00:39:55,519
the next twenty years, so about a little bit over

728
00:39:55,519 --> 00:39:59,039
three billion dollars a year to help address some of

729
00:39:59,079 --> 00:40:02,559
these issues. The past four years, that average was around

730
00:40:02,559 --> 00:40:05,360
two hundred and seventy five million, So we're talking about

731
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:08,800
the need being identified being about ten times what is

732
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,920
currently being spent per year in the state. So it

733
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:15,679
all sort of comes down to, I think, no matter what,

734
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:18,320
there's a lot of money that needs to be spent here.

735
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:22,320
We talked a little bit earlier two point five billion

736
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:26,400
dollars identified in the budget or the proposed budget from

737
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:31,079
both chambers this year. Your report in fact called for

738
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:36,119
five billion. That's also what Senator Charles Perry, who's been

739
00:40:36,199 --> 00:40:37,960
kind of taking a lot of the lead on this,

740
00:40:38,159 --> 00:40:40,800
particularly in the Senate, on this issue called for Are

741
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:44,840
you worried about the political will to actually get this done?

742
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,760
I mean, it's just hard to commit money in a

743
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,039
fiscally conservative state like this.

744
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,360
Speaker 5: So yes, we recommended that, you know, there'd be a

745
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:57,320
five billion dollar initial endowment for the Texas Water Fund

746
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,599
and the consideration of approving a one billion per fiscal

747
00:41:01,679 --> 00:41:06,760
year revenue dedication to that fund for the decades to come.

748
00:41:07,599 --> 00:41:11,679
The two point five billion that the House and Senate

749
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:18,000
have initially approved for water infrastructure is an extraordinary good signal.

750
00:41:18,639 --> 00:41:22,199
This is the highest appropriation we've ever seen the state

751
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:26,320
make for water infrastructure, more than the one billion dollars

752
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,239
for Prop six last year and the two billion dollars

753
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,880
for the Swift And so the legislature is already sending

754
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:36,880
a bright, clear, strong signal that they want to prioritize

755
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:41,719
water infrastructure investment. But that two point five billion, which

756
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:43,960
hopefully we can go higher to five, it's not going

757
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,360
to come close to closing that one hundred and ten

758
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:50,679
billion dollar water infrastructure funding gap. And so that's why

759
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:54,320
we think that dedicated funding which we already use for

760
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,880
state parks and we already use for state highways. That

761
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:01,400
financial strategy is a kind of model that we need

762
00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:04,559
to use in order to tackle our water infrastructure challenges.

763
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 1: The idea here is that in recent years with transportation

764
00:42:10,639 --> 00:42:13,840
with state parks things like that, the legislature has essentially

765
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:16,280
made it so that's automatic that a certain amount of

766
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:20,760
revenue coming in goes to that, like you say, dedicated fund.

767
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:23,280
Speaker 5: Yeah, and these were constitutional amendments that were approved by

768
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:27,280
voters in twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen that would dedicate

769
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,760
state sales and severance taxes to the state Highway Fund.

770
00:42:31,199 --> 00:42:33,679
Speaker 1: So what do you feel like is the biggest like,

771
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:36,320
what worries you the most about this? What's the biggest

772
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:38,760
hurdle that's going to have to be crossed to going

773
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:44,679
from to raise the confidence in our kind of long

774
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:46,719
term expectations for water.

775
00:42:46,519 --> 00:42:46,920
Speaker 6: In the state.

776
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 5: I think the House and Senate leadership have sent a

777
00:42:50,519 --> 00:42:53,960
great signal thus far. I mean, two point five billion

778
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:58,679
dollars for water infrastructure. It's a lot of money, great start,

779
00:42:58,760 --> 00:43:01,880
and we should end them for their leadership on this issue.

780
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:06,079
Getting to yes on a revenue dedication is going to

781
00:43:06,079 --> 00:43:10,239
be the challenge. And at Texas twenty thirty six, we've

782
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:14,159
been working with Chambers of Commerce eedcs, the business and

783
00:43:14,199 --> 00:43:18,880
industry community and helping make the case for the legislature

784
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:23,880
on why water infrastructure investment is so important for economic

785
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:27,840
growth and development. Most people in the legislaturead I'll say,

786
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:31,400
everyone really likes the benefits of the Texas economic miracle,

787
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:36,320
economic growth, population growth, jobs, good stuff is happening here.

788
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:39,719
They want that to continue, and they know that in

789
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:41,840
order for that to happen, you have to have three things.

790
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:47,159
One qualified workforce, two dependable electric grid, and three reliable

791
00:43:47,199 --> 00:43:50,559
water infrastructure. But if we want to have that reliable

792
00:43:50,599 --> 00:43:53,920
water infrastructure, that's got to be dedicated funding for it.

793
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 6: I think that's going to be.

794
00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 5: It's certainly an uphill fight, but it's not an instrumental,

795
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:03,280
insurmountable policy discussion for this session.

796
00:44:04,199 --> 00:44:06,440
Speaker 4: All right, well, we will watch and see how it goes.

797
00:44:06,519 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: Thank you Jeremy for coming and explaining this complicated but

798
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:12,840
important issue to us. Thank you to our producers, Rob

799
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:16,000
and Chris, and thank you to our sponsor water Grows.

800
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:19,360
Once again, if people have comments, questions, things they want

801
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:23,119
us to discuss, tripcast at Texastribune dot org.

802
00:44:23,599 --> 00:44:24,760
Speaker 4: We will be back next week