AIF Assigns Grades for Florida Legislators

The Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) unveiled their report cards on Thursday for legislators for the 2011 session. Looking at a number of pieces of legislation ranging from reforming property insurance, to performance pay for teachers, Medicaid and the state pension system, AIF handed out grades to the senators and representatives -- giving high marks to Senate Budget Committee Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, and Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne among others. The grades can be found at AIF's site.

While we havent quite reached the landmark levels of support we saw in 2006 and 2007, the Republican supermajority in both chambers, new leadership in the Senate and House and a new governor are all contributing to an increasingly business-friendly political and legislative climate, said Barney Bishop, the president and CEO of AIF. With Governor Rick Scott leading the way with a pro-jobs agenda, the Senate and House did their part to support job-creation by enacting legislation on tort reform, streamlining and enhancing our economic development toolbox, eliminating duplicative port security requirements, maintaining efforts to keep Floridas space industry a top priority, and passing unemployment compensation tax relief for employers. Moreover, the Legislature agreed with the governor and decreased our state corporate income tax and provided significant property tax relief, which will help make us more competitive with other states. Most importantly, the Legislature supported the governor on state pension reform at a time when many Floridians are out of a job and also tackled Medicaid reform which threatened to take control of our state budget. By the time you add in education reform, property insurance reform, growth management and permitting reform, the Senate president and the House speaker have every right to say they did their part to create a positive landscape for job growth in Florida.