Savannah Harbor dredging left out of Obama budget

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From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2011/02/14/savannah-harbor-dredging-left-out-of.html

Funds to deepen the Port of Savannah failed to make it into the fiscal 2012 federal budget recommendations President Barack Obama released to Congress Monday.

The Georgia Ports Authority asked for $105 million to jump-start dredging Savannah Harbor to a depth of 48 feet in time to accommodate the larger containerized cargo ships that will be using the Panama Canal when a widening project is completed there in 2014.

"We weren't shocked or surprised," said Curtis Foltz, the authority's executive director, citing the tight federal budget climate facing the president and Congress this year. "[But] we're disappointed."


The only federal money the approximately $600 million project would receive under Obama's budget is $600,000 in "pre-construction" funds to help move along the approval process.

Foltz said environmental mitigation work and related land acquisition also would move forward thanks to the state government stepping up to support the project. The state already has put up $102 million, and Gov. Nathan Deal is calling for another $32 million in his fiscal 2012 budget plan.

However, the lack of federal funds would prevent the actual dredging from getting under way, Foltz said. As a result, the project's completion date would be pushed back four to six months, past the scheduled completion of the Panama Canal widening, he said.

Georgia's congressional delegation will push to get some portion of the $105 million request into the federal budget as its make its way on Capitol Hill.

But that effort will be complicated by the stand against budget "earmarks" taken recently by the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

"They understand the pledge that's in place by Speaker [John Boehner, R-Ohio,]," Foltz said. "But they're dedicated to finding a funding solution."