Reading the headlines, Floridians might well conclude that Rick Scott is a governor under siege. After 100 days in office, hardly a day goes by when the state's chief executive isn't accused of victimizing the poor, bashing government employees or taking an ax to public services.
Booed at baseball games and other public events, Scott is used to seeing signs like the one at a recent rally in St. Lucie County: "Rick Scott -- Murderer of the Disabled."
But the torrent of negativity doesn't faze Scott. As he said in a recent interview: "No one elected me to be most popular. They elected me to get this state back to work."
And -- like fellow Republican Govs. John Kasich in Ohio, Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Chris Christie in New Jersey -- Scott thrives on the challenge.
"This is the absolute best time to be governor. There's a great debate about the future of [our] country. Most people believe government has enough money. The result is going to be better government," Scott said in a Wall Street Journal interview last week.
Like his fellow Republican reformers, Scott is delivering exactly what he pledged on the campaign trail -- an aggressive, cost-cutting agenda that upends the status quo, and an unstinting focus on bringing jobs to Florida.
"Scott ran as a fiscal conservative, and in his first 100 days he's shown voters they got what they voted for," said Randall Holcombe, an economics professor at Florida State University.
"He's set the agenda for the Legislature, which also claims to be fiscally conservative, and we're going to get the leaner state government Scott wanted."
On the employment front, "Job creation is starting to pick up and momentum is building," says Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Competitiveness.
Holcombe and Snaith say it's too early to determine whether Scott will attain his goal of creating 700,000 jobs over the next seven years. Indeed, critics say that based on his first 100 days as governor, it's far from clear that Scott will even be in office seven years from now.
"In my experience, this may be [the] fastest that we as a state have ever moved in the wrong direction," said Damien Filer, of the liberal group Progress Florida.
"[Scott] is on a fast track to deconstruct what makes this state a desirable place to live. It's wholesale destruction," said Filer, who worked in the administration of Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles.
At a time when Scott calls for $5 billion in budget cuts, Filer says it is incongruous for the governor to pay staffers "six-figure" salaries. Other critics suggest that Scott's corporate experience has made him tone-deaf to such clashing political symbols.
WORKING FOR TAXPAYERS VS. SPECIAL INTERESTS
While Florida's governor is certainly corporate -- "we measure the living daylights out of everything," he said in a recent interview -- Scott breaks the stereotype of the chauvinistic CEO.
For starters, his chief and closest advisers are almost exclusively women -- not good ol' boys. His transition chief was Enu Mainigi, a Washington lawyer. His policy director is Mary Anne Carter. Two of three deputy chiefs of staff are women. His department heads at juvenile justice, revenue and the lottery are females. Jennifer Carroll is his lieutenant governor.
Notably, most of Scott's new department heads are earning roughly $20,000 more than their predecessors -- around $140,000, according to a state salary database launched by the governor's office.
Unlike career politicians, Scott has not felt constrained by Tallahassee's lobbyist-media complex. Owing to his personal wealth, Scott could afford to turn down the gubernatorial salary and pay for his own air-travel via his personal jet.
Bottom line: He can make tough calls on behalf of taxpayers, without pandering to special interests.
"He isn't beholden to any of the typical political drivers. It allows him to take actions that Charlie Crist was not willing to take bcause there was a political cost involved," Snaith observed.
Among the leading special interests in Tallahassee are government employees themselves. Though outnumbered, Scott, the consummate outsider, has not backed down.
"Perhaps the one position Governor Scott has taken that has been popular among a majority of Floridians is his insistence that state employees start footing some of the bill for their retirement pensions," said Seth McKee, a political science professor at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Though Republican lawmakers are generally on the same page philosophically, it remains to be seen how far the GOP-led Legislature will follow Scott. Competing House and Senate bills contain different pension-withholding figures, and it is far from certain that either chamber will enact Scott's proposal to enroll new state employees into self-directed 401(k) retirement funds.
Scott's call to cut property taxes and phase out the state's corporate tax may not happen this session either. But business leaders, including Associated Industries of Florida chief Barney Bishop, say that cutting bureaucratic red tape is more important than lopping the corporate tax.
Scott has said that in his drive to attract and retain business his administration has "stopped 900 new regulations from going into effect." The governor's office is also examining every lawsuit the state is involved in.
Snaith agrees that regulatory reform is Job One. "These are essentially costless changes to procedures and regulations. We can revisit tax cuts after next session. That won't make much of a difference either way," he said.
Scott did, however, implement one new regulation almost immediately. Upon taking office, he issued an executive order requiring that all agencies under his control use the federal E-Verify database to screen job applicants.
That policy, which Scott touted on the campaign trail and is widely supported by the public, has not been universally adopted by Florida's other Cabinet agencies. Whipsawed by an eclectic coalition of "social justice" groups and business organizations, the Legislature has yet to pass an E-Verify bill to cover the private sector.
Contrary to rumors of friction between Scott and the Legislature, Holcombe said, "He's putting into place the policies he wanted.We'll have to wait a few years to see if they pay off in terms of job growth and income growth in Florida's economy."
Meanwhile, Scott, a political novice, is learning how to herd cats at the Legislature.
After rejecting $2.4 billion in federal stimulus funds earmarked for high-speed rail -- a move that proponents said cost the state 24,000 short- and long-term jobs -- the governor said he would wait until July to decide whether to proceed with the SunRail commuter train.
By delaying, Scott gave himself legislative leverage with Central Florida's large GOP delegation, headed by House Speaker Dean Cannon, which wants the $1.2 billion project.
POLLS, POLITICS AND EDUCATION
Still, Scott's critics point to ongoing union-organized protests and his 48 percent unfavorable rating in a recent poll as evidence he is on a terminal downward slide.
Editorial writers, jilted by Scott during the campaign, fuel the partisan fires by cranking out a homogenous stream of condemnatory columns. Frequently and inexplicably blowing off reporters' inquiries, the governor's four-person press office has done little to help his public relations. (Sunshine State News' questions for this article were neither answered nor acknowledged.)
McKee noted, "Because of his governing style, most Floridians know very little about Scott, but what little they learn tends to increase their negative views of this unique governor."
In fact, Scott's poll results reflect little change in public sentiment since the November election, in which he edged Democrat Alex Sink 48.9 percent to 47.7 percent.
At the same time, President Barack Obama -- Scott's polar opposite in pushing more taxes and higher spending -- has seen his disapproval rating among Florida voters soar to an unhealthy 52 percent.
But Scott's so-called poll problems received much wider airing than Obama's. And that same bifurcated bias plays out in other states led by reform-minded GOP governors.
In Ohio, for example, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported: "Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal swings the wrecking ball at the state's Local Government Fund, blowing open an unprecedented hole in a funding stream handed down to locals for generations."
Replace Kasich's name with Scott's, and the phraseology of that "news" coverage could have appeared in any one of Florida's major daily newspapers.
Scott acknowledged that his tough stands on the budget aren't popular with everyone -- particularly those who rely on government for their livelihood -- but he says there is no other responsible choice.
"We went from being a high-growth state to one where revenues are not going up. You have to make tough decisions now. Whether you like it or not, we have to choose what's most important," he told the Journal.
Along with jobs, Scott ranks K-12 schools at the top of the list. The first bill he signed was an education-reform bill virtually identical to the one vetoed by Crist at the behest of the Florida Education Association.
"We eliminated tenure, and the best teachers will be paid more. I am responsible for students -- what's best for them. That's what you expect of a governor," Scott said.
Furthermore, he vowed, "We're going to expand choice through charter schools, through greater competition."
Scott counters the oft-repeated shibboleth that he cut education spending. Indeed, the only loss of funds from Florida's $8.9 billion K-12 budget involved the expiration of $100 million in federal stimulus dollars this year -- barely 1 percent of the total.
As he reasoned in rejecting high-speed rail money from a deficit-ridden federal government, Scott disparagingly compared effervescent school stimulus funds to lottery winnings:
"Florida has accepted one-time handouts from the federal government, allowing state and local governments to spend way beyond their means."
The FEA did not respond to Sunshine State News' request for comment.
One group that remains unabashedly ecstatic about Scott is Florida's frothy tea party movement.
"Governor Scott has stood his ground and chosen the far more difficult path of responsible leadership. We see great things happening due to the tough choices he is making," says Tom Gaitens, a regional director for FreedomWorks, a Washington, D.C.-based tea organization.
Ultimately, Scott says, "No one is surprised by what I'm doing. I told people during the campaign what I would do, and they voted for me."
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
