HB609 would allocate up to $8 million from the BP Oil Spill Fund over four years to coastal tourism and seafood promotion, with a one-time $1 million grant to the Alabama Tourism Department in 2013 and annual funding to specific local organizations and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab for tourism and fisheries work.
The bill authorizes $8,000,000 from the BP Oil Spill Fund within the Department of Finance for fiscal years 2012 through 2015. It provides a one-time $1,000,000 to the Alabama Tourism Department for FY2013. It then deposits annual amounts for each year 2012-2015 to five entities: Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce ($125,000/year), Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau ($750,000/year), Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau ($125,000/year), South Mobile County Tourism Authority ($662,500/year), and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab ($87,500/year) for tourism and seafood promotion and marketing (with Sea Lab funding also supporting continuing fisheries stock assessment).
Engrossed
Motion to Read a Third Time and Pass adopted Roll Call 671
Motion to Adopt adopted Roll Call 670
Ways and Means General Fund Amendment Offered
Third Reading Passed
Read for the second time and placed on the calendar 1 amendment
Read for the first time and referred to the House of Representatives committee on Ways and Means General Fund
Source: Alabama Legislature