Rick Scott to Obama: We Want Our Money Back

With President Barack Obama in town Friday to talk jobs and infrastructure investment at the Port of Miami, Florida Gov. Rick Scott took the president's trip to South Florida as an opportunity to ask for a reimbursement for the state's port investment.

The Republican governor said, Were glad Florida provided the president with a tremendous backdrop to highlight our states continued job growth especially with todays news that we dropped to 7.7 percent unemployment and have created more than 290,000 private-sectorjobs in the past two years.In Florida, weve managed to grow jobs by cutting taxes, paying down debt and balancing the budget a stark contrast to the ways of Washington.

While were happy to host the president,we hoped to hear a commitment to reimburse Florida taxpayers the millions of dollars the state investedfor the federal portion ofportprojects in Miami and Jacksonville.We hope this reimbursement will be included in the presidents budget proposal next week.

In the meantime we will not wait on Washington. We will continue to invest in Florida ports so we make Florida a top hub for international commerce.Florida taxpayers have already invested $425 million in our ports to take advantage of the benefits ofgrowing internationaltrade, and well continue making targeted port investments to grow jobs and opportunities for Florida families.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. John Mica, who represents Florida's CD-7 and is former chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, highlighted Scott's work in the state, lifting him as an example for the president to emulate.

President Obama can see firsthand the success of Republican Gov. Rick Scotts work at focusing state, local and private resources at improving not only the Miami facility but all of Floridas key ports, Mica said. While I welcome proposals to expand public private partnerships and expand financial instruments for infrastructure projects, President Obamas call for a federal Infrastructure Bank is beating a dead horse."

Sure, he would enjoy more federal control, but in fact, 32 states already have their own infrastructure banks," continued Mica. "What they do not have is money."