Political Quotes

“I will return to discuss the specific issue of municipal water. Let me complete the arithmetic of the analysis I was doing. On an annual basis, the difference between the State of Florida contributing 50 percent as opposed to the norm of 35 percent is approximately a $35-million-a-year savings during the construction period of this project, some 30 to 40 years, for the Federal Government. If the Federal Government were to take that $35-million-a-year savings and invest it, even at a conservative rate of interest of 5 percent, over the period of this project, that would produce a total of approximately $1.8 billion. That is the savings plus the interest earned on those savings to the Federal Government. That $1.8 billion would pay the cost of operation and maintenance of this project to approximately the year 2050. We are, for the first half century of the 21st century, going to be saving the Federal Government an enormous amount of money by the State paying at the rate of 50 percent rather than 35 percent, and those funds will go substantially towards meeting these ongoing operation and maintenance costs that the Federal Government will share on a 50-50 basis.”