Franklin
county commissioners are opposing a move by the state senate to take control of
RESTORE Act funding away from the 8 Florida counties impacted by the BP oil
spill and give that control to a quasi-public corporation called “The Triumph
Gulf Coast Inc.”
The
RESTORE ACT directs that the 23 Gulf Coast Counties receive a portion of the
civil fines resulting from the DeepWater Horizon disaster, with eight counties
that were disproportionately affected receiving the lions share.
Those
8 counties include Franklin
But now an amendment to Senate Bill 1024 would divert money from
the RESTORE Act away from panhandle counties and allow a quasi-public corporation set the
priorities for the federal RESTORE Act dollars for repairing damages caused by
the B.P. Oil spill.
The
Triumph Gulf Coast, Inc., would be governed by a five person board of
directors, one each appointed by the Governor, the Attorney General, the Chief
Financial Officer, the Speaker of the house and the President of the Senate.
The
Board must hire three individuals specifically described in the bill to include
a CPA, an economist and a lawyer.
Projects
funded with RESTORE Act funds would then be determined by the Board, not the
elected officials from the counties.
County
commissioner Pinki Jackel said she feels the set up would be very harmful to
smaller counties like Franklin County because the process may require matching
funds to get any RESTORE funds, and poor counties like Franklin County just
don’t have the money to match the grants.
The amendment also sets criteria for
projects, focusing more on economic issues including tax relief and not on
environmental issues.
The Senate
Appropriations committee on Tuesday cleared the bill to move forward with only
one 'no' vote from Sen. Arthenia Joyner.
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