The Florida legislature’s
Joint Legislative Budget Commission has approved two mid-year budget amendments
which will provide millions of dollars needed to help restore Florida’s seafood
industry in the wake of tropical storm Debbie and the Deepwater Horizon oil
spill.
One of the
amendments provides an additional $3.2 million dollars in spending authority to
the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The money will
come from a Memorandum of Understanding with BP which was negotiated after the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The Memorandum
of Understanding allotted $20 million dollars for seafood testing and for
marketing safe seafood.
The additional
spending authority will go to anticipated expenditures over the next two years.
The second
amendment will address the impact of Tropical Storm Debby on Apalachicola Bay’s
oyster beds by providing nearly 2.7 million dollars for oyster relaying and
reshelling.
The project is
expected to provide 215 workers from the oyster industry with jobs restoring
and replenishing the oyster population with funding from a
National Emergency Grant which the department was awarded.
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