GULF SHORES, AL – Mayor Robert Craft came back from a March 7 meeting in Mobile encouraged about the coastal area’s chances for getting a share of the $1 billion BP settlement with Alabama.

During the meeting with representatives of Mobile and Baldwin counties Sen. Bill Hightower, R-Mobile, told the gathering he has introduced Senate Bill 267 this legislative session to route some of the money south.

Target projects of the bill would include linking the Baldwin Beach Express from 1-10 to I-65 at a cost of about $180 million and two improvement projects in Mobile County to dangerous stretches of U.S. 98 at $160 million and Rangeline Road at $51 million.

Another $48 million would go toward helping Alabama homeowners fortify and repair roofs with the goal of getting better insurance premiums after the improvements. The bill seeks a total of $439 million for south Alabama.

Craft said the original RESTORE Act specified that money be spent in areas most affected by the 2010 spill or in a 25-mile deep coastal zone.

But Gov. Robert Bentley has since directed the $1 billion settlement he worked for – minus $50 million for the Gulf State Park lodge project – to the general fund.

“The governor got the money for the state and made it real clear that he got it for the state,” Craft said. “It was all going to the state.”

But, Craft said, this bill aims to give the state what it originally filed as a claim against BP, but spend the rest on improvements in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. With the possibility of about $100 million left over for the People’s Trust Act fund.

Baldwin County Commissioner Tucker Dorsey is one of several officials supporting the Hightower bill from the county.

“The Hightower bill has some logical merit for the entire state,” Dorsey said. “That state makes a significant principal reduction to a loan it made itself and it moves a couple of coastal Alabama road projects which moves other statewide infrastructure needs toward the front of the line.

“Lastly, it suggest placing in trust the remaining funds which is always good for Alabama.”

 The bill is cosponsored by two powerful senators from parts north, Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, and Sen. President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston.

“In reality, the BP claim of former Attorney General Troy King came to about $150 million,” Craft said. “That’s all they had in claims for the state and they got a $1 billion settlement.”

Taking that money off the top, Craft said, is Bentley’s effort to pay back a loan the state general fund took from the state’s Rainy Day Fund. Under Hightower’s bill, that’s the first place the BP money goes.

The bill then hopes to direct the rest of the money south, although it won’t be the nearly $800 million left of a total $1 billion. Taking $50 million for Gulf State Park and the $161 million to repay the Rainy Day Fund will seem to leave $789 million.

Enter problem number two.

“The money is paid over 18 years,” Craft said. “You get $50 million the first two years and then $53 million a year until the year 18 and the full amount is paid off, the $1 billion to the state.”

Doling out money in $50 million-a-year increments will not fund the needed large regional projects, Craft said.

Craft said of that amount the $439 million for the south Alabama projects and the $161 million to repay the Rainy Day Fund – almost identical to the amount of the state’s original $150 million claim.

“In reality it’s probably a pretty good deal for everyone,” Craft said.

While Senate Bill 267 has received support in committee and the Waggoner and Marsh backing is are important, Craft expects legislators from other parts of the state will seek some BP money as well.

“It’s an uphill push and there will be a lot of effort put forward on our part to touch everybody we know in other parts of the state to try to get some help for us to get the money back down here,” he said. “So we’ve got a chance.”