what if

the town of South Padre Island had to pay for all of its own beach renourishment projects?
I don't know how much of the tab is currently being picked up by the federal government, but my guess is that it is substantial. In Virgina Beach questions are being asked...

But former Old Dominion president James Koch said federal funding to protect people living in vulnerable areas, such as flood zones or shorelines, encourages more people to live in those areas.

"If the federal government comes in and fights fires consistently, then people tend to come in and build houses in places that are risky," Koch wrote in the university's annual Regional Studies Institute and Economic Forecasting Project. "Society has to ask... whether that's a good idea."

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