According to the first report released from Gov.-elect Rick Scott's transition teams, Florida is on the road to ruin and needs a course correction -- quick.
His teams estimate the Florida Department of Transportation will have a $50 billion funding gap over the next 20 years. The population of Lee and Collier counties is expected to exceed the available vacant land area. And because of hyper growth over the last several decades, Florida is now facing an infrastructure deficit and the state's natural resources are under pressure.
More than 200 people, ranging from former politicians and department workers to law enforcement officers and business and health care leaders, are helping Scott figure out ways of correcting the state's problems and helping him reach his promised goal to revive Florida's struggling job market.
Monday the governor was briefed on ideas from the Regulatory Reform and Health and Human Services teams. The former was charged with the task of finding ways to reduce government, transforming the regulatory climate in Florida and looking for ways to attract new businesses that will create the 700,000 new jobs. The Health and Human Services team was created to find ways to lower health care costs, transform the delivery of health services and better meet the needs of those most vulnerable in the state.
Here are some of the highlights.
"Big idea #1" Restructure 'The Company'
Scott's team reports that many talk about regulatory reform but few achieve it. The report states that because the "system is too entrenched, and politicians rarely have the patience to understand it or take it on," they take an incremental approach which usually fails to produce results.
"The only way to do it right is to restructure 'the Company,'" it says.
In other words, the team's goal is to redefine Florida's strategic role in the global economy and rebuild its regulatory system accordingly.
"Big idea #2" Alignment
In what is likely the biggest idea so far, the team suggests combining the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Community Affairs. Eventually, other agencies might be integrated into that mammoth department based on how closely their missions line up.
This alignment process would happen over a series of steps and over the course of about two years. The philosophy behind it is that state agencies and departments with commonalities and redundancies would align themselves to reduce inefficiencies.
The teams also suggested a host of other ideas to increase economic growth, by making changes to the the way businesses and industries are regulated, how environmental protection agencies operate, tort reform and insurance.
Business and Professional Regulation
Change permitting in Florida, in a way that it recognizes job creation and economic development as quality of life issues to be promoted and protected with the same dedication as we protect other aspects of life in Florida.
Single application, common among state and local agencies, a coordinated IT system.
Fast-track strategic projects. Create regulatory avenues on which targeted "high-value" projects -- those that create a substantial number of jobs, high wages, or are targeted industries -- can move through the regulatory process more quickly.
Identify 60 fees and rules that can be repealed within 60 days.
Refund, via fee waiver, the excess license fees to licensees.
Create, by executive order, the Red Tape Review Group to review existing and proposed requirements and process under authority of Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Environmental Regulation/Protection
Change the culture and leadership in the Department of Environmental Protection and water management districts
Create jobs and revenues with public lands. Create incentives to maintain and encourage working landscapes
Expand private concessions
Support eco-tourism and Florida Forever
Expand and encourage more creative mitigation banking
Tort Reform and Insurance
Property insurance reform, including Citizens Property Insurance, rating laws, mitigation credit and CAT fund.
Scott is expected to hear briefings from at least three more transition teams Tuesday and Wednesday. He tasked all of them with finding innovative ideas from the private sector and other states, identifying opportunities to cut costs and determining legislative priorities that will assist him as he prepares to officially take office in January.
Lane Wright can be reached at lane@sunshinestatenews.com or 561-247-1063.
