Beach-restoration budget bleaker

Rather than budgeting $20 million for beach restoration in 2008-09, Florida’s latest estimate sets the state’s total contribution at $1.1 million.

“I always try to find some good news in all this,” Okaloosa County Beach Projects Coordinator Jim Trifilio said this week. “Lately there hasn’t been much.”

Last month, Trifilio told the county’s Tourist Development Council that Gov. Charlie Crist had proposed cutting the annual $30 million beach restoration budget by $5 million, then taking another $5 million out of the fund to help pay for Department of Environmental Restoration operations.

The cuts, if the Legislature signs off on them, mean more than $7 million in state grants for a six mile, $25.75 million Okaloosa Island/Destin beach restoration project will be dropped from the budget. $800,000 of that $7 million would have gone to Destin’s beaches.

At $1.1 million, the fund can’t even provide the DEP money Crist requested. Trifilio said the problem is that the money comes from Florida’s documentary stamp tax on real-estate transactions, which hasn’t generated much revenue since the housing bubble deflated.

A report from the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association said state law commits the doc stamp revenue to several higher priority projects: $415 million for debt service for Florida Forever and the Everglades; $542 million for the Transportation Trust Fund; and water protection. Beach restoration receives whatever is left.

One possibility, Trifilio said, is that the state could revisit the $150 million trust fund set aside for beach restoration projects that have received their permit but aren’t under way yet.

“They might go back through that list and re-evaluate how soon those projects might get constructed,” Trifilio said. “If they don’t think it will be constructed in 12 to 18 months, they might reallocate it to something that could be done sooner.”

Earlier this year, Trifilio told the TDC that local beach restoration, including three miles in Destin, might begin before the end of 2008. He said this week that the DEP has sent back the first permit, covering Okaloosa Island and requested changes, but none that pose a serious problem. The Destin permit is still under review.

“As far as the nuts and bolts of this process, we’re moving right along,” Trifilio said.

The TDC and the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce have joined to oppose the beach project cuts. If the money doesn’t come through, members said, the county would have to repeat last year’s funding study and recalculate the share of the project that beachfront property owners would have to pay. Since the budget won’t be finally set until June, the county might not be able to complete the study and carry out the required schedule of hearings before 2009

SENATOR GAETZ ASKS FOR BEACH RESTORATION MONEY
State Senator Don Gaetz is asking the State Committee on General Government Appropriations to maintain the $30 million in
funding requested for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2008-2009 and preserve Okaloosa County’s and Destin’s future beach restoration
project.

In a letter dated, March 20th, Senator Gaetz notes, “that the Governor’s recent budget proposal cuts this sum of money by $10
million; a reduction that would cause two critical projects in Northwest Florida to fall off the priority funding list.”

The Okaloosa County / Destin Beach Restoration project would restore the remainder of our county’s gulf shoreline , approximately
three miles of which are in Destin and the most critically eroded. The two jurisdictions submitted a joint request with a total $6.5 5 million for
11% grant from the state. The County and City have committed to paying the remaining $11,440,000 through Tourist Development
Council dollars and a Municipal Services Benefit Unit (MSBU). Earlier this month, Destin Council Member Sam Seevers went to
Tallahassee to lobby state representatives to keep the total beach restoration funding in place. She also met with State Senator Gaetz and
fought hard to secure his commitment to help secure the funding.

Gaetz’s letter to the committee chairman, Senator JD Alexander, continues by stating, “These projects are critical for Northwest Florida and are responsible efforts developed by local leaders for beach restoration. They also represent the ONLY funding that Northwest Florida would receive out of the current appropriation of $30 million.” He goes on to state, “I realize the Governor is doing his best to
balance expense with revenues, but if this proposed reduction is adopted it would mean that Northwest Florida’s beaches would lose all beach management funds. The beaches of Northwest Florida are the foundation for one of the area’s major industries – tourism, and they are an economic engine for the entire state.”

No final decision by the State regarding the cutting of beach restoration funding for its 2008-2009
budget has yet been made.

Destin beach restoration stats:
•Where: 3.1 miles of Destin beach, from Holiday Isle east, but excluding Henderson Beach State Park.
•The price: $13.5 million, plus $700,000 for seven years of monitoring the restored beach.
•The current funding formula: $800,000 from state beach-restoration grants; $7.85 million from an increase in the county bed tax; and $4.85 million from a “municipal services benefit unit,” a special tax district covering all properties south of U.S. 98 in Destin. Budget cuts could wipe out the state grant, along with cutting more than $6 million in grant money for Okaloosa Island.