Two years of finger pointing over the slow rebuilding of homes damaged in Hurricane Harvey took on a new level of political intensity on Tuesday as Democratic Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott attacked each other on social media.

The jabs come less than a month before voters decide whether Turner will get a second term in office, and as his opponents make Harvey a key part of their campaigns.

Nine months after the city got access to federal funds for home repairs, just 80 Houston homeowners have been approved for the funding, state records show.

On Twitter, Turner accused the state of a “money grab” after Abbott announced last week state officials will manage $4.3 billion in federal flooding mitigation funds instead of passing the funds to cities and counties, as it did with the home rebuilding money. In addition, Turner blamed the state for moving too slowly on past disaster recovery money dating back to 2008 when Hurricane Ike hit Texas.

For subscribers: Two years after Harvey, has Houston lost its urgency on flood repairs, prevention?

“The state has failed to expedite previous spending — Houston is still getting money for Ike recovery, Turner said. “This is a money grab by the state to spend it in places outside Houston and Harris County.”

Abbott said on Friday that the flood mitigation funds will mainly go to large-scale, regional projects to reduce flooding.

Abbott blamed Turner for the slow rebuilding of homes in Houston after the storm. The Texas General Land Office, which manages the home rebuilding program outside of Houston and Harris County, has approved rebuilding of more than 1,000 homes damaged by Harvey. But Abbott said Houston has had less than 10 rebuilt.

The city and Harris County got access to the home repair and rebuilding funds last December.

“The GLO didn't slow you down,” Abbott retorted. “You did.”

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Later Tuesday, the city of Houston responded that the over $1 billion for housing relief is not in the city’s bank account, but instead is reimbursement money that is still controlled by the state.

Turner on Friday said that local governments are being forced to seek approval from the state “before we can spend a dollar to repair or reconstruct a single home or issue a single reimbursement check.” He called it disingenuous for the state to blame local governments for the delays.

Mayoral candidates joined Abbott in blasting Turner.

“This mayor has failed us all, especially the victims of Hurricane Harvey,” said Tony Buzbee, one of 11 candidates challenging Turner in the Nov. 5 election. “He has also failed to do anything to prepare our city for the next storm. I’m fed up.”

After Abbott announced last week that the $4.3 billion in new federal funding to prepare for future flooding would be handled entirely by the state and not local governments, another Turner opponent, Bill King, pounced on the decision as evidence of Turner’s failings on Harvey.

“Sylvester Turner has shown he is incapable of managing this process,” King said on Friday.

More delays for federal mitigation funds

On Twitter, Turner argues that the issue is with the state and federal government. The state said last week it would take another nine months to get final approvals to begin using the $4.3 billion from the federal government.

George P. Bush, who leads the land office, said his staff isn’t slowing anything down and is only following rules laid out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on disaster funding.

“It is absurd for Houston to claim the state is in any way holding up their direct allocation of housing recovery funds,” Bush said. “All of Texas must play by the same federal rules.”

As for the housing repair funding, the GLO reports it has approved almost 1,400 homes for rebuilding outside of Houston and Harris County. But Houston has only submitted 107 applicants, with 80 approved so far.

Houston officials have also argued that they are taking more time to make sure under-served communities are getting the appropriate share of disaster recovery money. They have argued in reports that disaster money managed by the state has often failed to reach the people most in need.

The $4.3 billion has been the source of a lot of frustration in Texas politics.

Though Congress approved the funding in February 2018, the money still has not been released. HUD finished writing the rules for the funding in August — almost two years after Harvey made landfall in Rockport.

Now the land office has to draft a state action plan that could take until February to complete, and then two more months for a final approval from HUD. Members of Congress from Texas and other leaders like Bush have tried to pressure HUD to move faster, writing letters to President Donald Trump and meeting directly with HUD Secretary Ben Carson.