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Viewpoint: What’s A Fair Share Of $1.5 Billion?
March 14, 2017
submitted by Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, caught fire, and eventually sank, resulting in the largest offshore marine oil spill in U.S. history. Six years later BP reached a settlement agreement that resolved claims worth more than $20 billion, with Florida receiving a total of $2 billion for economic damages alone.
As we approach the seventh anniversary of the spill Pensacola is finally seeing some projects that were funded from early damage claims start to take shape, but the lion’s share of the settlement has yet to be distributed. The City has submitted applications for additional funding from the different BP settlement funds, but in every case, instead of being able to control a certain percentage of the money from City Hall, we have to join the parade of supplicants in Tallahassee or at the county office building.
We have an opportunity to do things differently with the $2 billion economic damages settlement commonly known as Triumph Gulf Coast. What’s at stake is potentially more money in one year than the entire amount Escambia County will receive over fifteen years from RESTORE Act Direct Component funds (aka Pot 1).
There is $300 million in Triumph money in the bank today that belongs to what are known as the eight disproportionately affected panhandle counties (Escambia to Wakulla coastal counties). Politicians in Tallahassee are debating how that money should be distributed and how projects should be approved by the state. So far they have made no effort to decide how much money each county should get, instead they have focused on who should control it, and as you can imagine, the focus of the discussion has been on everything but local control.
For all the talk about the importance of local decision-making by the people and firms adversely impacted the disaster, it seems some politicians are bent on building a monolithic state structure to oversee spending. One has to ask, whose interests are they serving? And, how would they respond to action by the federal government to limit state level decision-making? Not favorably, to say the least.
The current process for distributing BP settlement funds is slow, inflexible and fraught with uncertainty. In fact, the only thing certain is that meetings will be held, consultants will be paid and we will wait a few more years to see who gets the money and what it can be used for.
There’s a better way to handle this, and it starts with a distribution formula that would guarantee some share of the revenue to the counties and the cities. In 2013 the eight panhandle counties jointly agreed to a formula for allocating RESTORE Pot 1 funds. Based on that formula, Escambia County is guaranteed 25.334% of Florida’s RESTORE Pot 1 allocation, or about $69 million. I am asking our representatives in Tallahassee to apply the same distribution formula to Triumph. Doing so would guarantee Escambia County more than $75 million of the money that is already in the bank and more than $375 million of the $1.5 billion total.
More importantly, I am asking that a guaranteed portion of the counties’ revenue be distributed to the cities. The simplest way to do that would be to give the cities a percentage of the revenue based on their percentage of the counties’ population. In Pensacola’s case that would mean about 17% of Escambia County’s share, or $12.75 million and $63.75 million respectively.
It goes without saying that the formula could be adjusted, and some amount could be set aside for regional projects. What is important is that cities get a seat at the table. Without guaranteed local control over some percentage of revenue, cities will be left waiting for scraps to fall from the table and real progress will come at a snail’s pace.
Vernon Stewart, spokesman for Mayor Ashton Hayward, told NorthEscambia.com Monday that Hayward also supports the Town of Century receiving a share of the funding based upon their population.
Comments
10 Responses to “Viewpoint: What’s A Fair Share Of $1.5 Billion?”
Will any of the money be spent on actual damage the spill supposedly caused or will the money be wasted on the mayor’s pet projects.
The only Triumph project that Century should get approved is the entranceway into the area as it is the first impression for the entire county. Also any project like that SOAR that attempts to divert these funds into someone’s 501c non profit seems like an illegal scam! and outright discriminatory!
@Chris in Molino
Perhaps
Hayward threw Century’s name in the pot because he is pushing for his municipality P’cola to have control over it and hope Century officials will agree with him, although with the formula he is pushing Century will get a kernal maybe none at all. He does not want the BOCC to be the ones to vote yes or no. POLITICS.
Maybe they are seeing just a taste of what some of us who lost our livelihoods because of the spill felt while waiting for ……..
I don’t feel like the money should be distributed based on population. While I loathe Mayor Hayward, his yuppie downtown clique, and what they would do with the money, downtown Pensacola did suffer the most aside from Perdido Key. I think the money should be distributed like BP did individuals, in zones. By that method, Century would get little more than nothing as it should be. Why should Century get anything beside from being in Escambia County ? Can anyone explain that ?
Century Officials please note this.
Ashton Hayward also said this about Century in their joint meeting with BOCC. I believe now, I see that he is pulling for the “cities” The population of Century compared to P’cola is tiny so we will get even less.
Century MUST have a doable project that is being nominated if they want any of the so called “scraps”
The funds are used for economic development. I still push for Beautifying the Gateway always. I believe Century could use the funds to buy up the abandoned broken empty dilapidated homes and buildings along North Highway 29 and tear them down, put a small walking park around the retention pond near the Food Giant (Cottage Street) with landscape and a tiny parking lot with benches for photo ops. Welcome to Florida. I believe BOCC would support such a project because it benefits the whole County and City also.Century already owns some of the land.
This is a Win Win Win, the property owner (or estates) would probably love a bail out rather than a code enforcement fine, tourists would exclaim “Oh how nice!, stop at a business, eat, consider starting a new one and so on. Locals could walk around the park, It is probable already lit well enough. This is my Bright IDEA!
“Century Gateway Beautification”
Triumph Gulf Coast Funds
Note the RESTORE project Century nominated that is NOT being considered plus note Comm May’s project Soar with Restore that is NOT being implemented.
They (BOCC) need a concrete DOABLE plan submitted, not some pie in the sky idea and Century needs some one on top of the political process if they want to compete.
Kevin Stead, miss you already, you are the best. I imagine you know who is in the know and have written them already. Even if the funds are collecting interest in FLORIDA, not so bad. Very good insight into the matter. Is that what they are waiting for? Cha Ching.
Just watched the movie Deep Water Horizon.Yes that was the biggest oil disaster in the history of the USA and BP was responsible for negligence. Release the Funds to the Gulf Coast States and Counties.
Keep the Faith and Vision.
It seems to me that the counties affected should get the money, not the State, and not just the City. It seems that the Governor or County Commissioners, or someone is always saying that any money designated for a certain area should go elsewhere. I know there were damages elsewhere, but Escambia County should get their fair share of that money. Just my opinion.
What Mayor Hayward is saying is that he’s feeling a bit out of the loop. He’s got plenty of ideas regarding the spending of that money. Maybe a good portion should be set aside for infrastructure…. instead of begging the federal government for tax dollar funded grants.
They will babysit this money until it vanishes into the wind.
The old axiom is still true – if you want to start a really big fight, just throw a pile of money in the middle of the room and watch everyone go at it.
Question for those with knowledge of the topic…with the $300 M already in the bank, is the money drawing interest and is there a plan by the state to take the interest and use it for higher profile tourist areas? Just curious if intent would be to make money off of the $300 M before they finally release it to the counties entitled to it.