EDITORIAL: Savannah Harbor funding makes good business sense

While immigration has taken the front seat in the U.S. Senate this week, a project critical to Georgia’s economic growth is facing an unnecessary challenge.

In its proposal for Fiscal Year 2019 spending, the Trump administration is asking for less than half of the $100 million in federal funding that Georgia officials say is needed to deepen the Savannah harbor.

Earlier this week, President Trump proposed $49 million for the federal government’s FY 2019 installment, prompting members of Georgia’s congressional delegation to invite the president and Vice President Mike Pence to come see the project and to tout the return on investment that it will bring, both to Georgia and to the nation.

The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project was originally authorized in the Water Resources and Development Act of 1999 to deepen the Savannah River from its current 42-foot depth to as much as 48 feet to handle the bigger cargo ships that are being used to bring in and take out goods. The needed dredging, however, has run into delays for nearly two decades because of various bureaucratic logjams. In September 2015, dredging began to deepen the seaward half of the harbor, which extends 18.5 miles from Fort Pulaski into the Atlantic Ocean. Now, SHEP needs a contract for dredging of the inner harbor.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Marietta, noted that Savannah checks all the boxes on the type of project the federal government should be pushing toward completion. In a letter in December that the Georgia congressional delegation signed, Georgia’s senators and U.S. House members noted the project is projected to have 7.3-to-1 benefit-to-cost ratio with annual economic benefits to the nation of $288 million.

“An infrastructure project with a return on investment like the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project should be an absolute priority for the federal government,” Isakson said, adding that allowing the project to face delays will increase cost and decrease future benefits.

“I appreciate the president’s commitment to improving the nation’s infrastructure, but we must also sufficiently fund this vital project to which the government has already committed itself,” Georgia’s senior senator said. “If this project encounters further delays, its cost only increases while the benefits slip further into the future. We will not stop working to ensure that the federal government meets its commitments to this top infrastructure project, including in the omnibus funding bill expected next month.”

U.S. Sen. David Perdue, one of Trump’s staunchest allies in the Senate, the co-architect of GOP plans for immigration reform and the former CEO of a Fortune 500 company, said, “The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the country with the largest return on investment of any project the Army Corps of Engineers is currently managing. It is the fastest-growing port in the country.”

Like Isakson, the Sea Island Republican pledged to work to get the remaining funding that’s needed.

“We will not stop working to ensure that the federal government meets its multiple commitments to this top infrastructure project that already has an economic impact that reaches around the world,” Perdue said.

This is a project in which Georgia has met its share of the costs. Georgia has accelerated $266 million for SHEP, and Gov. Nathan Deal announced last month the state will add another $35 million in its upcoming budget. That spending is to keep the project, which is about 35 percent complete, as up to date as possible. Georgia has plenty of skin in a game that will benefit millions of people outside the state’s borders. Over the past decade, Georgia’s delegation noted in the December letter, the state has spent $1 billion on infrastructure in support of SHEP, with plans to spend $2 billion more over the next decade.

If, however, federal funding in FY 2019 is the same as the $50 million SHEP received in FY 2018, the Georgia delegation has noted, the project will see five more years of delays and its costs rise another $56 million because of inflation, also resulting in an “irretrievable, cumulative loss of $1.4 billion in annual economic benefits.” It also needs to be noted that shippers work far in advance on logistics. The mere uncertainty of when the harbor will be able to accommodate the larger ships is a significant issue.

While there are a great many important projects across the nation that are vying for federal funding, each with its own merits, it’s difficult to believe there is one with more potential for immediate economic benefit with a better return on investment. President Trump should see that it is simply good business to quickly break this latest logjam and get SHEP steaming ahead at full throttle.