Gov. Rick Scott picked up his pom poms and cheered on his home teams -- Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida -- in a series of roundtable panels held Monday.
Scott made pit stops in Cape Coral, Tampa and Flagler Beach for three “Fighting For Florida Jobs” roundtables.
Scott’s chief argument to keep the programs?
Jobs -- and that's a narrative he wants to have total control over. When the governor took office in 2010, he built an entire platform on getting Floridians back in the workforce. Jobs, Scott says, are key to making Florida a better place for businesses and for families statewide.
“I want [my family] to be able to get a job here and not to have to live in some other state to get a job,” Scott told business leaders at the Cape Coral roundtable Monday.
Scott ripped House lawmakers for their plans to eliminate both agencies as part of the chamber’s mission to curtail government wastefulness and corruption.
To the governor, sending Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida to the cemetery plot not only means the death of the two state agencies, but also the end of something more crucial: jobs.
“If you’re going to eliminate Enterprise Florida...and Visit Florida...you’re deciding you don’t care about jobs anymore,” Scott said Monday. “That’s the bottom line.”
The governor then urged roundtable attendees to hold their local lawmakers’ feet to the fire and ask why they voted to get rid of Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida.
Scott is recommending $76 million for Visit Florida this year. Tourism is a booming industry in the Sunshine State. In 2015, the tourism industry employed around 1.5 million people, the same year a record 105 million tourists visited the state. The Florida Legislature created Visit Florida in 1996, but now it appears it's ready to dismantle it as it celebrates its 21st birthday.
Ironically, the final stop for Monday’s leg of the tour is also home to state Rep. Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, who is the sponsor of legislation to ax Scott’s twin pride and joy.
Sunshine State News contacted Renner but had not received responses at the time of this article’s release.
The public-private organizations have come under fire from state lawmakers who say the amount of money the state puts into them doesn't actually impact tourism or job numbers.
House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, has led a full-court press to maim both Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida.
Corcoran says lawmakers and Scott share a common goal -- jobs -- but they don’t see eye to eye on how to bring jobs to Florida.
“Every legislator shares the Governor’s desire to see Florida add jobs,” Corcoran told Sunshine State News. “Our disagreement is about how we accomplish that goal.”
The speaker told Sunshine State News the economic incentive projects, while lofty goals, were overall failures.
“The Governor believes in Enterprise Florida,” he said. “We believe that any government program that sees 124 out of 232 incentive projects failing to meet their obligations is a failed program.”
Overall, Corcoran said lawmakers and Scott simply have fundamental disagreements on how to create a healthy economy -- and it all comes back to jobs.
“The Governor believes that giving taxpayer money to corporations is the primary way jobs are created,” he said. “We believe in the creativity and entrepreneurship of Florida’s small business owners. The Governor believes in giving away tax incentives to bring out-of-state businesses to compete with Florida businesses or to pay companies to leave one Florida community and move to another. We believe that government isn’t qualified to pick winners or losers.”
Scott will continue the tour on Tuesday with a stop in Panama City.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
