Wait--We're Going to Pay Nearly $4+ Million in County Funds for WHAT?

 

Will we spend nearly $4 Million and 
"name select" a hospital to inject vaccines
to the general public locally--or should
the state and federal budgets absorb this cost?

As we move through the holidays toward an end to an incredibly tumultuous 2020--the hits keep coming.

And I'm not talking about songs on the Billboard Charts.

I'm talking hits as in gut-punches and body blows.  Uppercuts and elbows to the face. Knees to the groin and spinning backfists to the temple and head.

First, we were hit with COVID 19 which infected 20,000 + residents, killed nearly 360 local citizens, and decimated spring-early summer tourism in our area. Poof, it was gone. (the revenue-NOT the virus)

Throughout the summer, citizens were laid off, businesses struggled, and the economy plugged along uneasily.

Next, we received significant damage from Hurricane Sally in September.  And as a result the county had to front $70 Million for debris hauling.  And although we will receive a majority of this money back in reimbursement from FEMA (75%) and the State (12%)---we will still be on the hook for            $ millions that remain after the reimbursements.  And the reimbursements, well--let's just say they are not always very timely.  As a case in point-I'm told by staff we received some reimbursements owed from IVAN (September, 2004) as recently as just two years ago in 2018.  Just saying.....

And yet early on in 2020--things were looking so great--we even received $8 Million in general fund eligible "found" money as a residual from the BP Oil Spill settlement.  It came as a pleasant, welcome surprise to all of us--out of the clear blue sky.  It was awesome and we all had plans and designs on how we'd spend this windfall in our respective districts.  It was great for about a month.  Don't worry though---that $8 million is gone now, that and then some.  Thanks 2020.  Vaporized into thin air.

And then--FDOT's bridge project went haywire in the wake of Sally-- as their contractor improperly secured dozens of barges--according to multiple law firms and the PNJ-- that subsequently took out the 3-mile bridge--effectively killing many small businesses in Gulf Breeze and vaporizing our early fall business at the area's beaches.  Don't worry though:--we are told FDOT will break with tradition and "do whatever is necessary" to actually complete something on time; they keep saying March 2021 the span damaged by their contractors' barges will be "fixed."  We will see about that---trust me I want to believe that.  Like Fox Mulder's famous office wall-hanging poster--"I want to believe."  I think it will be more like June-July------if things go perfectly from this point forward.  I hope I'm wrong and that FDOT will actually be able to hit a deadline.   I hope I'm wrong and FDOT is right.  We will all see in March, I guess.

We're told FDOT will have the 3-Mile
bridge repaired in March......

But now, after all of the above  (and much more I'm not even bothering to mention) comes word of another unexpected, contentious, out-of- thin air multi-million dollar expenditure we are going to be asked to approve in our first meeting of 2021.  That's right folks--nearly $4 Million dollars are going to be requested of the BCC to pay our local hospitals to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to our area's general population.

But Wait--why are we being asked to pay for this--isn't the state getting money from the FEDS for this?  What about the Army?  What about the "Operation Warp Speed" distribution plan? What about the health department? Isn't the National Guard going to be deployed to vaccinate the public?  Why wouldn't the hospitals be paid/reimbursed directly for this by the FEDS?  Aren't these hospitals already being reimbursed directly for COVID-19 related increased costs?  Too many questions.  

Our $57 Million in CARES act money is programmed and spent already--so where is the additional nearly $4 Million more supposed to come from--------and why are we doing this--paying for this locally?

I'm told that counties around the state, including one nearby to our east, are proactively paying their local hospital corporations (nonprofits and for profits) millions of dollars as their vaccination agents. Our neighboring county has put aside $2.4 Million for this express purpose I have been told.  So this is putting pressure on us to do likewise--is the justification I have heard.

My late mom, God rest her soul, had an apropos saying she used to throw at my brother and I when we were about to make bad choices based upon peer pressure.  "If Joey decides to jump off the cliff--are you going to jump off a cliff, too?"

Of course we want everyone to be vaccinated--we care about the health and safety of our citizens.  But again I ask--why do we have to shoulder this burden locally with local funds--this should be a FED and State cost, right?  I mean, the Federal Treasury is printing money at breakneck speed, the presses are smoking they are moving so fast as we quickly surpass $30 Trillion in debt.  So I have a hard time believing that some of that cheddar is not "supposed" to go to paying for citizen vaccinations.

"Yo, Adrian, we can't take any more
budgetary face-punches!"

This whole topic will be generating some discussion at the meeting.  Some pointed questions are coming that will require some cogent answers.  Because as of right now--we can't spend any more than we've spent already.  2020 has been one catastrophe on top of another, one punch to the head after another; we can't take any more blows to the head or else we'll get "knocked out!"