Yesterday, Lucia Bustamonte become the first BP representative to answer questions at an EOC press conference. I asked her how do BP come up with $5000 as the threshold for quick claim processing? The charter boat captains have told me that they make that in two days.
Bustamonte told us that that is the amount their contractor ESIS and BP’s leadership decided was the proper amount. She could give no other details, other than that is what their research said was the proper amount.
CFO Alex Sink disagrees:
CFO SINK INCENSED OVER BPâS $5,000 LOST INCOME PAYMENTS
TALLAHASSEE â Florida CFO Alex Sink today renewed her call that the federal government take over the handling of lost income claims processing from BP, in light of numerous reports that many affected business owners have only been offered payments of up to $5,000 to compensate for lost income.
âI’m incensed that BP is devoting resources to an expensive ad campaign touting how quickly theyâre writing checks, because payments of $5,000 or less amount to nothing more than a PR ploy,â said CFO Alex Sink. âThese payments are little more than âbait moneyâ for many of these businesses, and donât even come close to what they are actually losing. BP needs to start putting its money where its oil is and start writing bigger checks today. Clearly, as I suggested weeks ago, the federal government should take over this process immediately and just send BP the bill.â
Watch a video of CFO Sink meeting with oil impacted small business owners in Pensacola:
On May 24, CFO Sink sent a letter to President Obama urging that he put his administration in full command of stopping the Deepwater Horizon oil leak and processing the claims for affected residents and businesses. Two weeks ago, CFO Sink called on U.S. Small Business Administration Secretary Mills to review the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application process to look for ways to speed up the turnaround time so Floridaâs small businesses can access the cash they need to keep their businesses going during the economic fallout from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
CFO Sink has also called on Governor Charlie Crist to activate the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan program and expand the scope of the loans to provide small businesses suffering economic damages as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill with immediate assistance.
For more information on CFO Sinkâs actions regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, visit: http://www.myfloridacfo.com/OilSpill.