June 22, 2010. State’s Economic Impact Working Group won’t have info until at least August, SUS has requested $100 million for research.
Source: 06/22/10
Members of a state task force said Monday there is an urgent need to identify damages caused by the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but the task could be complicated.
The Economic Impact Assessment Working Group of the Oil Spill Economic Recovery Task Force met in the Governor’s Office. Gov. Charlie Crist did not attend. BP has said it will pay for damages caused by the oil spill and it has placed $20 billion into a federal escrow account to help pay damages in the Gulf region.
It’s too early to measure the economic impact on sales tax collection or unemployment claims though such information may be available in August, said Christian Weiss from the governor’s Office of Policy and Budget. BP is reimbursing hotels and restaurants now for lost business, said Jerry McDaniel, the governor’s budget director. But he said that doesn’t help local governments who are losing sales tax revenue on the lost business. “We just need to put something in place as soon as possible,” McDaniel said.
He said the state has the goal of creating a coordinated claims process in Florida for governments, businesses and individuals affected by the spill.
The goal of the working group is to identify and collect the data that can be used by the state Revenue Estimating Conference to analyze the impact of the spill, McDaniel said. State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan said the state’s public and private universities have requested $100 million from BP that can be used for providing baseline economic data as well as the “hard science” of the environmental harm caused by the spill. “This whole thing is going to swing off good data in the future,” Brogan said. “You are either going to have it or you are not.”
Cynthia Lorenzo, director of the state Agency for Workforce Innovation, said 117 unemployment claims had been filed resulting from the oil spill.
Rep. Leonard Bembry, D-Greenville, raised concerns about self-employed workers, fishermen and business owners who are not eligible for unemployment compensation. “Some of this is going to be opportunity loss, where people lose businesses due to the economic situation,” he said.
McDaniel said he hopes the state can work as quickly as possible to help save those businesses with loans or financial assistance from BP. “I think urgency is at hand,” he said.
The communications working group of the Oil Spill Economic Recovery Task force meets Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. and the BP Claims Processing working group meets from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, go to http://www.flgov.com/gulfrecoverytaskforce.