Florida Counties Upset Over ‘Triumph Gulf Coast’ Bill

A consortium of eight Gulf Coast counties is raising an alarm about a Florida Senate bill that creates a nonprofit board to manage money from settlements from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The Gulf Consortium met Monday to discuss the bill (SB 1024).

The bill creates a nonprofit “Triumph Gulf Coast” board to safeguard any funds recovered by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The attorney general sued BP and Halliburton before the statute of limitations expired on the 2010 disaster’s third anniversary.

The counties are concerned over losing local control.

But amendments filed this week would ensure the new board would not control Gulf recovery money coming from the federal RESTORE Act. The bill was scheduled for the floor Monday but was postponed.