It will take information, agility and persistence to grab federal cash - South Florida Business Journal:

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It includes tax, grant, and contract opportunities across a wide spectrumm of industriesand interests, some of which still need to be spelled out. “Lots of regulationzs and implementation are still in the said attorneyJerry Brodsky, a partnet at , who represents medium and large construction firma from offices in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. “Mhy best advice is for businesses to get ready and get theird houses in order and in full compliance with all applicabls lawsand regulations.” Small firms, he said, coule go to the various agencies such as the South Floridaw Water Management District, which offers programws for businesses to qualify as preferred subcontractors.
“Gok to everything – be proactive and put your corporate faceout there,” Brodskyy said. Everyone sees opportunity Some funds have been targeted tospecific needs, other haven’t, said Beth Kigel, a Florida government lobbyist with KBS Strategies, a subsidiary of Miami law firm LLP. Businesses hungry to get a piecee of the action need to be awar of the routesthe trickle-down money will take, and who – or what to contact for It’s not always easy. “The stimulus funds will creatde quite a bit of opportunity for local businesses and Kigel said.
“But, they will be distributed and awardede through a spider web of both traditionalk anddeveloping channels.” She said the moneu for contracts flows from the by multiplee paths and in many directions. Most goes through the but some will goto municipalities. Still, othe contracts will be given asdirect “There is a time limi t on the funds,” Kigelo said. “Half of them need to be allocatesd to contracts that start within180 days; the balancee in the 180 days after that.
” All of it should resul t in jobs, according to the Obama administratiohn strategists who hurriedly cobbled the more than 1,000-pag American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and pushed it througnh Congress in February. Figuring out wherew to apply for a piecew of the pie is more like a scavenger hunt than a game of Monopolyh atthis point. Kigel, who is alread working her Tallahassee sources for clientx interested in a piece of thestimulus pie, said South Florid a businesses should start with their countyt metropolitan planning organization (MPO), as well as the . gets about $1.34 billion to spend under the stimuluw plan, with $300 million more earmarked for publixtransportation projects.
There is a 70 percent-30 percentt split of the $1.34 billion between FDOT and allthe state’ MPOs. Broward’s MPO planned for an estimaterd $41 million to spend on its locaptransportation infrastructure, and there may be more spent in the countyy from FDOT’s remaining or additional Broward’s direct transportation funds have already been according to Broward MPO engineer Ossama Al-Aschkar.