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County Sees Big Surge In Pentagon Funding

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 18, 2008

The Pentagon pumped nearly $100 million into Pasco County in 2006, a dramatic increase over recent years, according to a recently released government report.

About two-thirds of the funding from the Department of Defense went to a single Port Richey company, AP Military Group, which arranged for the delivery of bagged salads to military bases across the United States and Asia.

During the same period, the Pentagon gave more than $8.8 million to New Port Richey-based Pall Aeropower, a longtime military contractor that builds filters for aircraft engines.

Another recipient of military funds was Citrus Country Groves. The Dade City fruit company got about $1.6 million for supplying fruit, said owner Jim Guedry. Guedry's company got $2.2 million from the Pentagon in 2005.

The military spending was a sliver of nearly $2.8 billion the federal government spent in Pasco County during its 2006 fiscal year, which included the final three months of 2005. The funding was revealed as part of the annual Consolidated Federal Funds Report, a detailed county-level accounting of U.S. government spending compiled by the Census Bureau.

As in previous years, the majority of federal spending in Pasco went to Social Security payments and Medicare coverage. Other funding was spread among education programs, such as Pell Grants and special education; mortgage insurance; low-income housing and food stamp assistance; farm subsidies; and grants to law enforcement agencies.

Much of Pasco's federal funding has grown as the county has grown, but the Pentagon's portion has seen sharp increases in recent years, thanks in part to contracts with companies such as Pall and Land O' Lakes-based Opinicus, which moved to Pasco in 2005 with a lucrative military contract to build flight simulators.

In 2001, the Pentagon spent $3.7 million in Pasco. That total quadrupled by 2004 to $14 million. In 2005, the total was $71 million.

For local manufacturers, military contracts represent a lucrative business opportunity. Because those contracts require subcontracting a portion of the work to smaller companies, military spending creates ripples across the county's entire manufacturing base, said John Walsh, vice president of the Pasco Economic Development Council.

Walsh's group recruits new industries and helps existing companies expand. In recent years, the EDC has tried to match up primary military contractors like Pall Aeropower with smaller subcontractors, Walsh said.

The level of military spending in the county didn't surprise Walsh.

"What's a surprise is there's a company here that did $61 million in business with the Pentagon," Walsh said.

Two years after receiving its contract for delivering salads, AP Military Group found itself on the wrong side of 2006's scare over bacteria-tainted spinach. The 12-year-old company, with headquarters in Brevard County, lost 75 percent of its business and filed for bankruptcy that same year.

"We're in the process of closing the company down," office manager Gail Borman said this week when reached at AP's Port Richey office.

COUNTY'S SHARE

To see how federal spending in Pasco broke out in 2006, go to the Census Bureau's Consolidated Federal Funds Report at harvester.census.gov/cffr/, search for geography, choose Florida and click yes to search by county, then choose Pasco County.

To see who has contracts with the Department of Defense, go to siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/procurement/2005_data/performanceDOD200609.pdf.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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