Texans Feel Slighted as Obama Pours Tens of Millions into Florida

The Houston Chronicle reports that folks there are mighty upset over the Obama Administration’s decision to shower resources on Florida:

The Obama administration dealt another symbolic blow to Houston’s space community Wednesday by delivering $15 million in assistance to help Florida aerospace workers get new jobs after the shuttle fleet retires this year. No such money so far has been promised to the Johnson Space Center.

“No one should be surprised by this,” said Bob Mitchell, head of the Bay Area Economic Partnership. “This is a political statement by the White House and an attempt by this administration to divide the states.”

JSC could lose up to 7,000 NASA and contractor jobs.

Florida remains an electoral battleground in presidential elections while Texas has voted reliably Republican since 1980.

Houston will be getting some job transition assistance funding, the Chronicle reported last week:

Job transition assistance is on its way to Houston-area aerospace workers facing potential job losses from the retirement of NASA’s shuttle fleet and threatened cancellation of the moon program, the Texas Workforce Commission said on Friday.

Spokeswoman Ann Hatchitt said the agency is preparing a grant request for $5 million in emergency federal assistance to enable Workforce Solutions for the 13-county Houston-Galveston region to provide employment services for an estimated 450 NASA-related employees and contractors who may lose jobs tied to JSC.

In addition, $1.7 million from a recent $10 million statewide grant by the Department of Labor also will be used to help an estimated 250 JSC-linked workers who face potential layoffs, Hatchitt added.

This funding is relatively small compared to what the Obama Administration wants to spend in Florida. In addition to the $15 million grant last week, the Administration has proposed spending $40 on worker transition and job creation projects. In addition, it wants to spend nearly $2 billion over the next five years on infrastructure improvements at the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.