Background: HB 7077 was passed by the 2017 Florida Legislature and amends the 2013 Gulf Coast Economic Corridor Act (Act) that established Triumph Gulf Coast, Inc., (Triumph) a nonprofit corporation, to create and manage the Recovery Funds awarded to Florida pursuant to the 2015 BP economic settlement. HB 7077 specifically identifies that these funds are to be awarded to entities in and used for the benefit of the eight disproportionate counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay Gulf, Franklin and Wakulla.
Current Triumph Board Members
Triumph is managed by a five-person volunteer board. Board members cannot benefit from Triumph Gulf Coast awards. Initial board members are:
· Allan Bense, Chariman, Bay County, appointed by Senate President Gaetz
· Bob Bonezzi, Destin area, Bonezzi Development, appointed by Speaker of the House Weatherford
· Stan Connally, Jr., Gulf Breeze area, President and CEO, Gulf Power Company, appointed by Gov. Scott
· Pamela Dana, Destin area, Senior Strategic Advisor for the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, appointed by Attorney General Bondi
· Stephen Riggs, CPA, Destin area, Carr Riggs & Ingram CPAs, – appointed by Chief Financial Officer Atwater
· Jason Shoaf, Gulf County, VP St. Joe Natural Gas Company – appointed by President of Senate Joe Negron (7/2017)
· Don Gaetz, Vice Chair/President Elect, Walton County Businessman – appointed by House Speaker Cochran (7/2017)
Highlights of HB 7077
Triumph Board:
· Added two new members to the Triumph Board, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House each get to appoint one of the two members (new members appointed 7/2017).
· Each of the two new members must be from one of the 4 counties with the lowest population as of the 2016 census, which is Wakulla, Gulf, Franklin and Walton counties.
Eligible Projects: Includes projects or programs that meet the priorities for economic recovery, diversification and enhance of the 8-counties any may be provided for:
· Ad valorem tax rate reduction
· Local match requirements of s. 288.0655 (Rural Grant Fund)
· Public infrastructure projects for construction, expansion or maintenance which are shown to enhance economic recovery, diversification, and enhancement.
· Grants to local governments to establish and maintain equipment and trained personnel for local action plans of response to respond to a disaster, such as plans created for the Coastal Impacts Assistance Program
· Grants to support program that prepare student for future occupations an careers at K-20 instituions that have campuses in the 8-counties, and includes programs that increase student’s technology skills/knowledge; encourage industry certification; provide rigorous, alternative pathways for students to meet high school grandaunt requirement; strengthen career readiness initiatives; fund high-demand program of emphases at bachelor’s and master’s level designed by the Board of Governor’s; similar to or the same as talent retention programs created by the DOE University Chancellor and DOE Commission; encourage students with interest or aptitude for STEM disciplines to purse postsecondary education at a state university or Florida college system institution.
· Grants to support program that provide participants in the 8-cotnies with transferrable, sustainable workforce skills that are not confined to a single employer.
· Grants to the local tourism entity created s. 288.1226 FS for advertsing and promoting tourism and Fresh From Florida, and grants to promote workforce and infrastructure.
Application and Award Procedure for Funding Projects: Triumph must establish an application procedure and a scoring process for the selection of projects and programs with priority given to projects and programs (meeting one or more of the eligibility criteria above) in the 8-counties that:
· Generate maximum estimated economic benefits. Based on tools and models not generally employed by economic input-output analysis, including cost benefit, return-on-investment, or dynamic scoring techniques to determine how the long-term economic growth potential of the 8-counties may be enhanced by the investment;
· Increases household income;
· Leverages or further enhance key regional assets, including educational institutions, research facilities and military bases.
· Partner with local governments to provide funds, infrastructure, land, or other assistance for the project.
· Benefit the environment in addition to the economy.
· Provide outcome measures.
· Partner with K-20 educational institutions or school districts located within the 8-coutnies as of January 1, 2017.
· Are recommended by the Board of County Commissioners of the County in which the project or programs will be located.
· Partner with convention and visitor bureaus, tourist development councils, or chambers of commerce located within the 8-coutnies.
Awards caveats:
· Triumph at least 14 days before approving an award, must publish on its website a summary of the project or program and its intent to approve the award.
· Financing 100% of any project or program. Match may be required.
· Awardee shall not receive all of the funds available in any given year.
· Awards may “supplement” but may not “supplant” existing funding sources.
· Triumph must execute agreements with awardees that include provision requiring performance and financial reporting, recover of award in the event award is based on fraudulent information or the awardee is not meeting performance requirements, and all other applicable state laws requirements.
Role of Local Board of County Commissioners
· Solicit proposed projects and programs from other elected local governing boards within the County.
· Submit to Triumph a list of proposed projects/programs including those solicited from other elected local governing boards recommended by the Board of County Commissioners.
Note: County staff will provide additional information as soon as the Triumph Board provides further clarification on the process and timeline for this activity.
Financial Impact:
In October 2015, the State of Florida and BP agreed on $2 Billion economic settlement to be paid out as follows:
2016: First payment of $400M was received by the State.
2019-2033: Annual payments of approximately $106.6M will be paid to the State
HB 7077 establishes allocation of the BP economic settlement funds to Triumph and the 8-Counties:
· For all settlement funds received the prior to July 1, 2017: $300,000,000 is allocated in FY 2017-18 to Triumph for projects within the 8-counties. 40% of this amount (or $120,000,000) is to be divided equally so that each county gets a minimum allocation of 5% or $15,000,000 for eligible projects. The Legislature appropriated the $300,000,000 to Triumph in FY 2017-18 State Budget.
· For all settlement funds received after July 1, 2017: $80,000,000 is allocated to Triumph for project within the 8-counties. 32% of this amount (or $26,000,000) is to be divided equally so that each county gets a minimum allocation of 4% or $3,200,000 for eligible projects. These funds will be available to Triumph as they are received and as appropriated annually by the Legislature.
Updated from 7/13/2017, Board meeting in Pensacola:
§ Officers: Alan Bense will continue as Chairman through December 2017, Don Gaetz was elected vice-chair/president elect, taking on role as Chairman January 2018.
§ Next meeting: scheduled for August 15th @ 10:30 am, location tbd. Anticipate monthly meetings through the end of the year while everything is getting established and possibly moving to quarterly meetings in 2018.
§ Project application and process for submittal, review and award: No decisions have been made. This important topic will be discussed in a workshop setting following the August 15th Board meeting.
§ Susan Skeltor was approved as Executive Director and will also act as Secretary for the Board.
§ Two committees were formed today (from the Board members), one Committee is to bring recommendations back to the Board regarding CPA services and the other Committee is charged with bringing back recommendations for legal services. As of today, there is no plan to issue an RFP for these services. Recommendations are to be presented at the August meeting.
§ The Board and the Executive Director will determine what additional staff are needed and identify potential office space. These items and other administrative items will be on future agendas.
§ Website is now established --- but is still work in progress https://www.myfloridatriumph.com/ If you are interested in all discussion and public comments at this meeting an audio recording of the meeting and minutes of the meeting will be available as soon as possible on the Triumph website.
Updated 7/17/2017 stk