SAN ANTONIO: President-Elect Donald Trump will take office next month and he is promising quick action on border security.
We’re looking into how that could impact the millions spent by the state of Texas to secure the border.
“In the sense that they could go spend money which might benefit citizens in other ways, like better roads, better schools, lower property taxes,” said Dr. David Macpherson, professor and chair of Trinity’s Department of Economics.
Dr. David Macpherson noted Operation Lone Star, which supports national defense and social programs has cost Texas roughly $11 billion dollars.
But if the federal government starts to lead border security efforts and foot the bill for it that would free up the money Texas is spending now.
“That would enable the government, the Texas government, to spend money on other priorities, such as infrastructure, property, tax reductions, education, any variety of different priorities for the state,” he said.
He says we could even potentially see a reimbursement.
“It’s possible we can see a reimbursement from the federal government to the state. It’ll obviously be up to Congress to pass a bill, which he would have to sign authorizing that payment,” he added.
Clint McDonald, Executive Director of the Texas Border Sheriffs hopes to meet with the new administration.
“And have a better idea of how the border sheriffs can help the new administration and continue to help the citizens of Texas,” said McDonald.
He explains they are funded through Operation Lone Star.
“We don’t know if there’s a possibility of getting funding through the new Trump administration or not,” he said.
And the future is unknown.
“So, we’re just like a lot of other people around the state right now, we’re just going to sit and watch and wait and be ready to jump into action any way we can help,” he said.
“We need to try to focus on our budgets and keeping money available because we don’t exactly know right now what role that the state of Texas, our border shares will play in the immigration policies that are going to be put in place,” he added.
McDonald says a lot depends on what actions this new administration specifically takes.