There’s less than a month to go until the Florida Legislature is set to call it quits, bang the gavel and head home after hammering out a state budget and passing a series of bills to become law this summer, but it remains to be seen how one issue in particular -- over Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida -- will pan out this year.
The two agencies, which promote economic incentives for businesses and push tourism in Florida, are both set to see massive cuts as part of this year’s budget.
The Florida House of Representatives has taken particular interest in gutting the agencies, initially proposing to ax Enterprise Florida entirely.
House Speaker Richard Corcoran calls the programs “corporate welfare.”
Gov. Rick Scott disagrees, saying the state needs the programs to thrive.
The governor has made both state-funded programs a priority, traveling all around Florida to drum up support for EFI and Visit Florida.
On Wednesday, he will head to Orlando as part of his “Fighting for Florida Jobs” roundtable tour, which has carried on for months on end.
Scott hits city after city trying to convince business leaders, tourism leaders, members of the public -- and more importantly, the legislators who hold the fate of the programs in their hands -- how important both agencies are.
At each meeting, he tells attendees to write their state reps and tell them not to vote against the programs he loves so dearly.
Jobs, Scott says, are a huge reason to support the programs. That message is important to the governor, who has largely campaigned on the promise to get Florida back to work.
Earlier this week, the governor stopped in Destin to talk about how he would fight to save the initiative.
“Local legislators right here voted to get rid of [the agencies,]” Scott said in Pensacola last week, calling out state lawmakers who voted against the program, like Rep. Clay Ingram from Pensacola, by name.
“They recruit companies to either expand or move here,” Scott said on Enterprise Florida in Gainesville last week. “In the last six years they have helped 900 companies,” Scott said of Enterprise Florida. “Tourism is a big deal. It creates 1.4 million jobs in our state. Our state is still tied to tourism...Last year we spent $76 million and guess what? We got almost 113 million tourists.”
To Scott, tourism numbers mean another job for a needy Floridian.
“Every 76 tourists is another Florida job,” he said.
As the clock winds down to the end of the legislative session, both the House and the Senate will have to come to some kind of agreement over how much -- if any -- money EFI and Visit Florida receive.
The Senate is currently proposing giving Enterprise Florida $85 million in funding for the economic incentive agency, while giving another $76 million to Visit Florida.
The House, on the other hand, is still adamantly opposed to Enterprise Florida and is holding firm to its $25 million allotment to the state tourism agency.
The legislative session ends May 5.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
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