House panel expands rural disaster-recovery eligibility in bill to add Kerr County and others

Representative Ashby asked the committee to modify an existing rural infrastructure disaster recovery program passed earlier in the regular session (House Bill 3010) to expand eligibility for grants to counties affected by the July Hill Country floods. Under the current statute, grants are limited to counties with population under 100,000, GDP under $2,000,000,000 and poverty rate above 15%. Ashby said the change would move the GDP cap to $3,000,000,000 and lower the poverty threshold to 10% so Kerr County and 18 additional counties could qualify.

“I was approached by the city officials in Kerrville, to ask if I would be willing to modify House Bill 3010…the bill allows Kerr County and 18 other counties to receive state assistance as a result of the floods,” Ashby said. He described the amendment as narrow: “All the bill does is raise that GDP cap from 2,000,000,000 to 3,000,000,000 and lowering the poverty rate from 15% to 10%.”

No witnesses testified for or against the change during the hearing. The committee initially left the bill pending; later committee roll calls recorded a favorable committee report on the measure.

Ending: Committee members authorized the bill to be reported favorably in committee votes recorded at the close of the hearing; sponsors said the change would allow affected Hill Country counties to access the program’s infrastructure grants.