GUEST COLUMN: Triumph Bill Not a Win for NW Florida

Let’s backtrack. In 2013, the Florida Legislature created Triumph Gulf Coast, a nonprofit corporation to administer the funds as a result of the BP settlement from Deepwater Horizon. Triumph funding was to be used for programs and projects that encourage economic recovery in the eight Northwest Florida coastal counties. After our community has long-awaited these investments, the Florida Legislature, which must appropriate the monies to the Triumph fund, has changed course and focused its statewide attack on economic development and tourism to our very own local money.

For more than a year, some in the Florida Legislature have been sending negative signals to businesses that Florida isn’t as interested in growing jobs and businesses as it once was. And just recently, 87 members of the Florida House voted to eliminate two dozen of Florida’s targeted and proven economic development programs.

The immediate aftermath of the BP oil spill, as businesses struggled and visitors no longer flocked to our sandy shores, is proof that we must continue to market our gulf beaches as a tourist destination and continue to diversify the economy. We can’t rely solely on tourism and the fishing industry to propel our economy, but must turn our attention on creating high-skill, high-wage jobs as well. And the Triumph funding was a path toward attracting large-scale, competitive projects, like Navy Federal Credit Union in Pensacola, but now, economic development projects are off the table in this latest move by the Legislature.

Taking economic development strategies that work off the table is shortsighted, and without question, will put Northwest Florida at a competitive disadvantage compared to neighboring states. Enterprise Florida, VISIT FLORIDA, and local economic development and tourism agencies and chambers of commerce are important pieces to Florida’s economic puzzle. The settlement money was originally intended for economic recovery projects. What better use for this money than focusing on projects that diversify the economy and fund tourism efforts?