Morris stated that Tarrant County should receive at least $200 million in additional funds this year from Washington, D.C., and another $250 million from Texas Propositions 1 and 7, state constitutional amendments for transportation funding that were overwhelmingly passed in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The region is also likely to gain additional funding through grants.
“We won three grants last month in the region advancing projects for low-income and others,” Morris told the council.
The region could also gain additional funding via deferrals from two big freeway projects, one in Austin and the other in Houston, because construction on those projects is progressing slowly, he said.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments is a voluntary association of local governments that helps with regional planning, according to its website.
This funding is in addition to the $400 million transportation bond approved by Tarrant County voters in November 2021.
Morris said he is confident that 2022 will be a year of action on various projects, especially the Lancaster project and extending rail service into the hospital district. “This is the year of doing. This isn’t the year of talking. This isn’t the year of beginning. This is the year of doing,” he said. “We’ve been talking about a lot of these things for a long time. All of this is now in our court.”
