Shumaker Advisors so far has winning slate of Pinellas appropriations requests

Shumaker Advisors, through work by lobbyists Alan Suskey, JD White, Jim Taylor and Amy Bisceglia, is backing a suite of appropriations requests benefiting Pinellas County.

The firm is pushing 12 requests for various funding items throughout the Pinellas peninsula. While not always full funding, money is proposed in at least one budget for all of the Pinellas County-based appropriations projects the firm is representing.

Of those projects, four include funding amounts in both the House and Senate budgets, and full funding is on offer in at least one of the chambers for three of the requests.

The city of Oldsmar is poised to be Shumaker’s most successful client in the state funding game. Sen. Ed Hooper, the chief budget negotiator for the upper chamber, is running a request for $3 million for design and construction of improvements to Patty Drive and Country Club Drive in Oldsmar. That would cover the street, sidewalks, curbs, gutters and stormwater conveyances, none of which have been improved since first developed in the 1960s, according to Hooper’s request.

The Senate budget includes full funding for the project, though the House has not included funding in its budget, and there is no House sponsor.

The city of Safety Harbor also has two projects with full funding on offer, including $1.28 million for the Safety Harbor firefighter safety and infrastructure resiliency project. The Senate has offered the full amount requested, while the House has offered half, at $640,000.

The project, sponsored by Hooper in the Senate and Rep. Adam Anderson in the House, would fund the purchase of critical infrastructure to support emergency response in the community, including new garage door systems at fire stations, new fire station roofs and windows, a new motor for the Department’s boat and a new self-contained breathing apparatus for firefighters.

The Senate is offering full funding, $160,000, for security improvements to Safety Harbor City Hall. The House is offering half, at $80,000.

Hooper and Anderson are sponsoring the request.

Shumaker is shooting for the moon on funding for renovations to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, with an $8 million request sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie and Rep. Kim Berfield.

The House came up with nothing in its initial proposed budget, while the Senate has just $350,000 included in its budget — still a win for a proposed budget coming in at about $1 billion less than the current fiscal year budget.

The requested funds would be used to demolish and rebuild a portion of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium that had deteriorated due to deferred maintenance and hurricane damage and is no longer fit to welcome members of the public, according to DiCeglie’s request.

Shumaker is also backing two requests for $3 million, including one that appears poised to land funding no matter what — assuming it survives the budget reconciliation process between the chambers and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto pen.

DiCeglie and Anderson are sponsoring requests for $3 million to upgrade and expand the Chi Chi Rodriguez Chi Chi Academy. The House budget includes half the requested funds, while the Senate budget came out of the gate with $350,000 for the project.

And DiCeglie, along with Rep. Linda Chaney, is sponsoring another $3 million request for stormwater improvements to roads surrounding Gulfport City Hall, where the city’s police and fire services are also located. The project would improve roadway conditions and thus response times for emergency responders. The House did not include funding in its budget, but the Senate included $378,000 for the project.

Shumaker is also working with DiCeglie and Chaney on a $2 million request for inflow and infiltration improvements in Pass-a-Grille, including repairing and replacing compromised pipe segments, reducing chloride intrusion, eliminating system failures and improving overall efficiency and environmental compliance. The House included $1 million in its proposed budget, while the Senate did not include funding.

Also backed by DiCeglie and Chaney, Shumaker is lobbying for $1.825 million to reconstruct Boca Ciega Drive in St. Pete Beach, a span of road that serves about 8,000 residents and numerous visitors to the area. The project would fully replace the roadway, including asphalt paving, new curbs, the addition of sidewalks, stormwater improvements, new signage and more.

The project appears poised to land at least some funding, with $912,500 included in the House budget and $350,000 in the Senate.

Also in St. Pete Beach and backed by DiCeglie and Chaney, the Shumaker Advisors firm is the lobbyist of record for a $3 million request to replace Fire Station No. 22, which was completely destroyed in Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The new facility would be designed to meet Federal Emergency Management Agency compliance standards.

The House included half the funding requested in its proposed budget, while the Senate did not include funding.

The Shumaker team is also pushing for $1.5 million for Career Source Tampa Bay’s efforts to provide enhanced training and other supportive services for military veterans, including by eliminating barriers to employment. The funds requested would fill funding gaps in services for transitioning service members, veterans and eligible spouses. The House didn’t include funding in its budget, but the Senate included $350,000.

Hooper and Anderson are sponsoring appropriations requests in their respective chambers, with support from Shumaker, for $1 million for a stormwater pond modification project in Safety Harbor. The House has come in with half that request in its budget, though no funding is included in the Senate budget.

And Shumaker is also supporting a $500,000 request from Sen. Darryl Rouson and Berfield for the next planning phase for a permanent home for The Florida Orchestra, including consultants who are experts in theater and concert hall planning, design, acoustics, market analysis, fundraising, cost estimation, architecture and engineering.

The House has included $350,000 in its budget for the project, though nothing is so far on offer in the Senate.

All of the funding levels proposed are preliminary as the House and Senate begin the work on reconciling their respective budgets before a final budget is sent to DeSantis for his consideration, where funding will still face the threat of DeSantis’ line-item veto authority.

But the inclusion of proposed funding for all of the Pinellas County-based projects that Shumaker is backing suggests the firm is in line to have successfully advocated for funding on behalf of its clients this Legislative Session.