Posted in Jeremy's Notebook

RESTORE Math

   January 17, 2013

The Escambia County Commission is expected this afternoon to sign on to the latest formula agreed to for the county-level RESTORE Act pot.

“It isn’t exactly what we wanted, but it’s what brought everybody together,” said Commissioner Grover Robinson, who has been the commission’s point person for RESTORE matters.

A consortia of the eight Florida counties most impacted by the 2010 oil spill have been hammering out a formula for how their share of Clean Water Act money—or RESTORE money—will be divvied up. Escambia’s proximity to the spill, being the westernmost county in the state, has assured it’s place at the front of the line.

Robinson informed his fellow commissioners that Escambia should be seeing 25.334 percent of the total pot of money allocated to the eight counties. The overall sum of the Clean Water Act penalty has yet to be decided, and will be split into multiple pots, divided between the federal government and the five Gulf Coast states.

“We’re about a percentage point off where we end up losing,” Robinson said. “At the end of the day, it was the right thing to do for a team approach.”

Commission Chairman Gene Valentino noted that Escambia—the last county to sign on to the agreement—faired will in the tentative formula between the eight counties. The percentage reduction was easy enough to live with.

“It’s not material,” Valentino said. “Very good.”

“If it’s ten billion,” Robinson threw out a hypothetical RESTORE settlement, “we just went from $113 million to $106 million.”

The county commission will meet this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. at the downtown governmental complex. Public forum is at 4:30 p.m.

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