SID SALTER: Budget woes will add fire to fight over BP fund distribution
The legislative battle over the ultimate distribution of some $750 million in economic damages from the BP oil spill settlement was always going to be heated and contentious.
That’s the nature of legislative battles that center on sectionalism and factionalism – and what can be more sectional or factional that arguing over whether upstate counties are entitled to a portion of economic damages from an industrial disaster that took place in the Gulf of Mexico?
Given that reality, the state’s declining revenue stream rather sets that battle in concrete. Upstate lawmakers not only want a portion of those funds, they will argue that they (and their constituents) need and deserve it as well.
Daily Journal
1/5/17
Magnolia Tribune
