Senator Jeff Chapman Questions Using State Subsidies for Oceanfront Development on Jekyll Island

PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 25, 2008 – Georgia State Senator Jeff Chapman has called for an official investigation of contracts signed between the Governor-appointed board of the Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) and several companies involved with the redevelopment of Jekyll Island State Park.

The contracts in question allow for millions of dollars of publicly-generated revenue to be handed out as ‘incentives’ for developers to take on lucrative oceanfront real estate projects. Senator Chapman has requested that the Georgia Department of Audits conduct a Performance and Compliance audit of the Jekyll Island Authority contractual agreements in question and has called for a halt to further contract signings by the Jekyll Island Authority, including the private-public partnership contract between the Jekyll Island Authority and Linger Longer Communities, until the investigation is completed.

Senator Chapman is writing a series of articles (http://www.savejekyllisland.org/Oceanfront.html) on the fiscal practices of the Jekyll Island Authority board. His article raises questions about why the Jekyll Island Authority board is handing out incentives for beachfront development projects at a time when the Jekyll Island Authority is cash starved. The Senator states that the less revenue the Jekyll Island Authority takes in from current redevelopment projects, the more ammunition it gives them for the argument that additional development is needed for Jekyll Island State Park in order to provide the Authority with the revenue it needs.

Those who find the Senator’s revelations to be disturbing may contact Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle (http://www.cutwaste.org/report.aspx), their own state legislators, or the members of the Jekyll Island Authority Legislative Oversight Committee and urge them to support the Senator’s request for an official investigation by the Georgia Department of Audits. For contact information for state legislators, go to http://www.legis.state.ga.us/. For contact information for Oversight Committee Members, go to http://www.savejekyllisland.org/SenateHouse.html.

About The Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island State Park

The Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island State Park (IPJI), http://www.savejekyllisland.org, was founded in September of 2006 as a means of sampling public opinion on Jekyll’s redevelopment and of allowing the island’s many friends to work together to help preserve the park and shape its future. An all-volunteer, non-profit association with a modest beginning, the IPJI has grown to over 10,000 supporters committed to the preservation of Jekyll’s unspoiled qualities and unique characteristics, the promotion of the island as a model of restrained development, and the maintenance of the park as an affordable and family-friendly vacation destination.