Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater wants anyone sending comments to the oil spill compensation fund to drop him a line.
Claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg released his formula Wednesday, starting a two-week period for the public to weigh in on his proposals (which can be done here).
In a statement, Atwater said he wants Floridians to also email their comments to [email protected] or through the Department of Financial Services website, so he can take them into account as he develops his own comments for Feinberg. #
Since Feinberg released the formula, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility’s website has been filling up with comments, including this one from a Florida business posted to the facility’s website on Sunday:
Your formula for final payment does not seem to take several things into consideration- What about businesses that have closed due to the spill? 2 years (actually 16 months by your calculations) of losses do not cover a now closed business potential over a lifetime.Hundreds- if not thousands of businesses along the Gulf Coast were forced out of business by the end of 2010.Many of which had seen increasing revenue in the 1st quarter of 2010 only to have it plummet after the spill.
Additionally your 50.7% [of lost income] is not a fair standard to apply to all businesses. Retail & restraunats may have that much overhead, but service based businesses do not. A construction sub contractor who does not supply materials only labor for a job should not loose nearly 50% of his or her claim. The same for independent contractors in the spa , entertainment, & housekeeping businesses. These are all actually all small businesses that have little COGS. Their LABOR is their business.To automatically reduce their payment is basically saying that their labor only has 50 % value.
Finally- you base 2 years on 8 months of losses, which in turn -turns final claims into 16 month claims.There is mounting evidence by scientist not paid by BP or GCCF that the Gulf Coast may not ever fully recover. To suggestest that 16 months worth of compensation is satisfactory when we all know the impact will go beyond that is insulting.
