Greg Abbott's $250 million in funding for a border wall likely to get him 20 miles, report suggests

Your tax dollars at work, Texas.

New state spending amid Gov. Greg Abbott's $250 million pledge to resurrect Donald Trump's border wall suggests all those dollars will get the Republican governor a whopping 20 miles of barrier, the Texas Tribune reports.

The news organization based its estimate on details of a $25-million state contract to build two miles of concrete border barrier in Eagle Pass. The funding is coming from the transportation department’s maintenance division budget, according to a state spokesman.

Elementary school-level math suggests that if Texas is spending $250 million on those two miles of concrete, the $250 million pot Abbott promised to use as a "downpayment" on a border wall likely will run dry in 20 miles, give or take.

By way of context, the Lone Star State shares around 1,000 miles of border with Mexico where there's no barrier, the Tribune reports.

However, a spokeswoman for Abbott's office, Renae Eze, told the Tribune that the $25 million contract isn't actually part of the governor's border wall. That project, she explained, is part of a separate state strategy of building "strategic barriers." 

Abbott has trumpeted the speed with which he's making good on his promise to finish Trump's marquee project. But at least two independent media reports described an initial stretch near Del Rio as looking less like the former president's "big, beautiful wall" than a plain chain-link fence.

Again, Eze had an explanation, telling the Tribune that "erecting temporary fencing" is also something different from the governor's grand wall project.

The Tribune story points out that Abbott has pledged to use crowdfunding to provide additional money for the wall project. However, that campaign has raised shy of $1 million so far.

Again, not enough for much wall, no matter how you do the math.

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