Published: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 6:37 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 6:37 p.m.

The state Legislature this week is poised to approve the final plank of funding to renourish Venice and Anna Maria Island beaches, both ravaged last year by Tropical Storm Debby.

Anna Maria Island is slated for $20 million of restoration work, which involves bringing in tons of sand from offshore and filling in the eroded areas. The federal government has pledged nearly $14 million. Manatee County has set aside $3.175 million. The state will pay $3.175 million.

Venice will get an $11.87 million project; that includes more than $9 million in federal dollars, $1.425 million from the state and a local match of $1.425 million. The project comes just eight years after a $12 million restoration in Venice, much of which has already eroded.

Those projects could just be the start. Sarasota County is working on designs and permitting for a renourishment project for Siesta Key, which also lost sand to Debby, especially at Turtle Beach. Laird Wreford, coastal resource manager for the county, says that project is likely to get approved by the state Legislature next year.

While local officials cheered the projects, some fiscal conservatives questioned why the federal government is spending millions on renourishing beaches at a time when the government is $16.8 trillion in debt.

There's simply no public purpose for the state of Florida, much less the federal government, to be doing this, said Eli Lehrer of R Street Institute a nonpartisan organization in Washington, D.C.

In many cases, the projects are to protect private homes owned by wealthy people, Lehrer said. We build up beaches that nature is going to wash away again.

President George W. Bush unsuccessfully tried to curtail federal spending on beach nourishment. Yet Congress continues to put up most of the dollars for such projects, which legislators from beachfront states and communities can tout back home.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, pushed for the latest round of federal funding, saying the work has vast benefits.

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Restoring sand to Venice and Anna Maria beaches