Gov. Rick Scott unveiled his $77 billion budget proposal on Wednesday, including almost $675 million in tax cuts.
To the people of Florida: this budget shows that its your money, Scott said. You can spend it better than government. Thank you for your hard work in helping businesses add more than 728,000 new jobs over the last four years. We know we have more work to do and this budget will certainly help keep Florida working."
There is a great temptation in government to think it can spend peoples money better than they can, but its not true, said Scott. People know how best to spend their own money, and because of our job creation and pro-growth policies, we have a major budget surplus and are giving Floridians back $673 million in tax cuts.
Scott noted his proposal includes record K-12 total and per-student funding and funding for environmental conservation mandated by Amendment 1, passed by the voters in November.
Our budget reflects the priorities I spoke about during the campaign last year, Scott insisted. It is a strong budget because our economy is strong, and the key to keeping our economy growing even stronger is to give families back more of the money they already make.
Scott made his $470 million cut to the Communication Service Taxes (CST) on cellphones and cable TV services the centerpiece of his tax cut proposal.
The benefits of the CST is it impacts everybody in the state," Scott said. Its broad based.
But Scott looked to push other tax cuts as well, insisting they would help grow the economy and create more jobs.
People know how best to spend their own money, Scott said, pointing to his proposed $673 million in tax cuts.
Scott also looked to showcase tax cuts to college textbooks, increasing the corporate tax exemption from $50,000 to $75,000 and killing the manufacturing sales tax.
Asked if he continued to supported Medicaid expansion, Scott said he was receptive to the idea but insisted bringing jobs to Florida remained his top priority.
Asked by Sunshine State News about the growth of state government during his tenure in office and what he would say to fiscal conservatives who have supported him, Scott defended his record.
Revenues are growing in our state," Scott said, noting the creation of more than 720,000 jobs and record-high tourism. Weve cut taxes over 20 times ... were doing the right thing for taxpayers.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN.
