Fitch revises Corpus Christi\u2019s credit outlook to negative amid drought and desalination setback<\/a><\/p>\nGuajardo told 3NEWS that since the city\u2019s original partner, Kiewit, is no longer involved, Corpus Christi could now turn to the next bidder in line. \u201cNow that we do not have Kiewit to work with, we do have another option to go to the next bidder, and so that\u2019s what will be discussed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Councilman Mark Scott says if the city doesn\u2019t move quickly, the state could take matters into its own hands. \u201cI think the state\u2019s position is there\u2019s going to be a desalination project. The question is do we do it, or does the state do it?\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
The council voted back in September to kill the project after costs skyrocketed past the $1 billion mark. Councilwoman Carolyn Vaughn says the governor\u2019s office might be more than willing to take over and pay for it. \u201cIf the governor wants to come in here and take it over and pay for it, that\u2019s awesome. \u2019Cause it was all about the price for me,\u201d Vaughn said. \u201cSo if they want to take it over, go ahead. I don\u2019t know how the other cities in Texas are going to feel about a governor coming in and taking over a situation in a city, but we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Senator Chuy Hinojosa, who represents much of South Texas and sits on the Senate Finance Committee, says funding shouldn\u2019t be a dealbreaker. \u201cAt the end of the day, the state always provides grants to help close the gap,\u201d he told 3 News.<\/p>\n
Hinojosa pointed out that the Texas Water Development Board currently has about $6 billion in bonding authority, with lawmakers adding another $2.7 billion just last session. He also says there\u2019s money available through the federal Clean Water Act. In his view, there\u2019s more than enough funding to make the Inner Harbor desalination project a reality whether it\u2019s done by the city or the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 A project that many thought was dead is now being revived. The Inner Harbor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-38929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}