Escambia County has seen the State of Florida take all the $25 million BP block grant for clean-up and recovery. The County has been told to go to BP for any reimbursement. The state has reneged on its commitment to help us. Gov. Crist loves to talk about how resilient and hardy Floridians…he fails to mention that he is using BP money intended for us to pay for his trips, his staff’s overtime and DEP’s people in Mobile.
For weeks, county staff has prepared invoices to send to Tallahassee for reimbursement, over $3 million. Late last week, the County was told never mind send its bills to BP. All the BP money is gone, spent by Crist and DEP.
There needs to be a State House or Senate investigation of where the BP was spent. Florida Cabinet members – AG Bill McCollum and CFO Alex Sink – should be demanding reports on why the BP funds didn’t make it to the governments that need it the most.
This is a travesty.