No major funds are included in the Obama administration’s fiscal 2012 budget for deepening the harbor at the Port of Savannah.
The federal budget was released Monday and failed to include a $105 million appropriation requested by the Georgia Ports Authority, but the spending plan did authorize $600,000 for pre-construction funding.
Port officials are working on a $600 million deepening project to prepare Savannah Harbor to receive larger ships that will pass through the Panama Canal after it doubles capacity through a current expansion project, which will be completed in 2014.
Georgia has already spent $100 million on the project and Gov. Nathan Deal allocated $32 million of bonds in fiscal 2012 when he unveiled his first budget in early January.
Deal, a Republican, said the state had done its part in funding the project and he had hoped for a “much greater show of support from the president.”
“Georgia and the Southeast greatly need this project, and the federal government has a constitutional authority and responsibility to pay for waterways and ports,” Deal said in a statement.
“Recognizing the national importance of this project, the federal government needs to carry its weight here to strengthen American competitiveness, and I will work closely with our congressional delegation to get the funding we need to move forward.”
Deal said the Savannah project would “jump-start massive job creation in the private sector.”
