Gov. Scott helped open the Department of Economic Opportunity on Oct. 5. The law that created the new agency also gave Scott unprecedented control over incentive awards up to $5 million. (Photo courtesy of Rick Scott.)
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
“Jobs” is the political word of the day. In a nation and a state desperate to get back to work, politicians are given the leeway to do almost anything in the name of jobs.
That might explain how Florida has been fleeced of tens of millions of dollars in corporate welfare.
The Orlando Sentinel’s Aaron Deslatte reports that, over the past 16 years, the state has given companies more than $1.7 billion in tax credits, rebates and other incentives. In return, those companies were supposed to hire Floridians. But it turns out that only about one-third of the 224,286 promised jobs have been created.
Nearly 1,000 companies — 971 — received state aid but have not created a job, yet have been awarded $1.1 billion. Another 33 companies were awarded $24.3 million to create 5,696 jobs, but they actually lost 1,550 jobs.
Soon-to-be Senate President Don Gaetz is so concerned, he wants the state to investigate and see if it can get a refund from some of the companies.
Understandable, then, why Gov. Rick Scott decided to do away with the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development.
Only thing is, he also decided to do away with the Department of Community Affairs parts of the Agency for Workforce Innovation and merge it all into a mega-department with a mega-budget that he controls.
Senate Bill 2156 not only created the new Department of Economic Opportunity, but it also gave Scott unprecedented control over incentive awards up to $5 million. He can hand them out like candy on Halloween with no, or little, oversight.
When Scott signed the law, his office issued a press release that said, in part:
“The bill enhances the state’s ability to quickly react to business development opportunities in two ways. It cuts to 10 days the required time to approve or deny requests for state incentive funds; currently, this process can take up to 42 days. In addition, the Governor is authorized to approve incentive awards under $2 million without legislative approval or consultation, and for awards from $2 million to $5 million, the Governor must simply notify the chairs and vice chairs of the Legislative Budget Commission (LBC).”
So money can be given out quicker, easier and with less oversight than the $1.7 billion we’ve already given.
In this, his first year holding the purse strings, Scott wanted to give out $300 million in cash incentives. Lawmakers limited him to $93 million.
A job-creation program that did seem to work was the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, often referred to as the Stimulus Bill. The $19.2 billion that Florida receivedin stimulus funds actually created 173,000 jobs, although that number has dwindled by 10,000 now that the program has ended.
But Scott, a Republican, has vehemently opposed the stimulus, which was a program of President Barack Obama, a Democrat. He’s gone so far as to turn down stimulus money. The state has not even bothered to keep up a website that monitored the impact of the stimulus.
“We’re not in the business of promoting the stimulus as a get-to-work program,” Scott spokesman Brian Burgess said.
Considering the state of the economy, you would hope the governor would be in the business of promoting any and all get-to-work programs.