EDITORIAL: Use of Triumph funds for hurricane relief a disastrous idea

Jan. 30--Whether it was an off-handed remark to reporters seeking fodder, a comment taken out of context by state media and blown out of proportion or the actual leaning of Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, his quoted remarks that he sees no reason that Triumph funds earmarked for the Panhandle after the BP oil disaster can't be used for hurricane relief should offend every resident in our region and set off enough red flags to create a hurricane of our own headed toward Tallahassee.

It potentially sets up, at the worst possible time mid-tragedy, an unnecessary, distracting and ugly scene where all past nightmares are rolled into one and the residents of Northwest Florida and their legislators, for seemingly the umpteenth time, are again put in the position of keeping hands from south and central Florida out of money that was so clearly not intended for them. In this case, using Triumph money to offset Hurricane Michael recovery costs would mean the state would shed its burden of doing its job -- which is providing relief for Hurricane Michael recovery efforts as it has with every other single hurricane to ever hit the state.

Already State Sen. George Gainer, R-Panama City, and Rep. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City, are decrying the idea of diverting Triumph funds and girding for battle. Triumph Chairman and former Sen. Don Gaetz, who mastered the legislation that created the Triumph fund to help rebuild the counties most adversely affected by the oil spill -- Bay, Escambia, Franklin, Gulf Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Wakulla and Walton -- and who knows exactly what that money is intended for because he sponsored the legislation has asked the state to leave the money alone for its intended purpose of creating sustained jobs by funding projects that create them across the region.

The Triumph legislation could not have been written any clearer, one reason it has survived so many previous attempts at diversion with legislators like former Rep. and now Florida CEO Jimmy Patronis, Trumbull, Gainer, Gaetz and former House Speaker Allan Bense fighting to protect it. Yet the attempts to raid it continue.

Why shouldn't Triumph Gulf Coast -- a nonprofit agency created to distribute three quarters of the $2 billion the state will get during the next 12 years from the BP settlement to our area -- divert money to hurricane restoration?

For one, that wasn't its intent and it brings back memories of the sales job on the Florida Lottery, where the populace was won over that it was a good thing because it would supplement funding for education and vastly improve what we offer our children. Instead, it became a shell game. Lottery money went into education funding not as a supplement, but replacing money the state used to provide so the state could spend its money elsewhere without the promised game-changing-boost to education spending.

So it appears it could be with Triumph. This money is earmarked for the economic recovery of an area devastated by the worse man-made economic/environmental disaster on record in this area. It is set up to supplement what the area already receives in state funding, not replace it. The money represents damages to our area incurred from an event almost a decade ago and which we received from a lawsuit.

Imagine a family that isn't rich but is doing better than others because it has been prudent and saved for a rainy day. They are hit by a drunk driver, their child's liver is damaged but it is determined that with years of post-care and treatment the liver will regrow to its former self and the child one day will recover, but it will be difficult. There is a lawsuit and the insurance company pays a settlement out over time to pay the cost of the ongoing care and rehab that will ensure the child is again healthy one day.

Then imagine the same child is hit by a falling tree in a freak accident and needs immediate medical care and services, and the insurance company responsible for paying for it says, "Well, you've still got all that money coming from the liver treatment and it's getting better, we're not going to pay out this claim, just use that other money."

In a nutshell, that is the affect of what has been suggested.

We hope it's not the intent, that it was just an off-the-cuff suggestion. But we would suggest Sen. Bradley, and any other like-minded legislators, pay us a visit, walk in our shoes, see the affects of being hit by a once-in-a-lifetime man-made disaster and a once-in-a-lifetime natural disaster in the span of 10 years, before suggesting the state doesn't need to meet the same burden of support in the Panhandle as it has in every other area of Florida ever hit by a natural disaster.

___

(c)2019 The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.)

Visit The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.) at www.newsherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.