Gov. Scott Makes Economic Pitch In Miami
MIAMI (CBS4) - Governor Rick Scott wants Florida open for business he told a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce audience on Watson Island Tuesday. "We don't have an income tax," he reminded them, "we have a right to work state."
Scott thinks those are prime ingredients for reenergizing a Florida economy that was hammered by the recession. He wants to create 700,000 jobs in seven years and to do that Scott adds, "We have to have the best educated workforce."
The Republican governor—in office a week now---also believes more tax cuts will act like an economic elixir. Scott vows to include in his new budget a 19 percent property tax cut that he talked about repeatedly on the campaign trail last year. He told reporters, "I'm going to try and get through all those promises I have on my list."
However, the governor's honeymoon in office may hit the rocks fast in the face of what he concedes is an estimated $3.5 billion state budget deficit. And more tax cuts, assuming the Republican led legislature would approve them, may only hurt those world class classrooms Scott says Florida needs to attract more businesses here.
Miami-Dade schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he had a good chat with the governor Tuesday morning. He also promises to keep reminding Scott about his promises to education. Carvalho said, "If that 18 percent or 19 percent (proposed tax cut) were to be on top of what education has lost and may lose as a result of sun setting of (federal) stimulus dollars then we are looking at a catastrophic situation."
Many other tough choices await too. Scott opposes federal earmarks and yet it may take $75 million in so called earmark money to help dredge the Port of Miami so that it can handle bigger ship traffic from an expanded Panama Canal in the middle of the next decade. Port backers say more than 30,000 new jobs are on the line. Port cargo development manger Eric Olafson told me, "Those jobs could literally go offshore if we don't have the 50 foot (dredge) depth and are the first port out of the Panama Canal to accept those post Panamax ships."
Scott knows a decision and his backing, or lack of it, will be important and his actions will be watched closely He will only say for now, "It is clearly something I am looking at. We've got to make sure we are ready when the Panama Canal expansion opens in 2014."
Ambitious agendas and campaign speeches now run up against the hard realities Scott, or any new governor, ultimately must face. The challenges in a post recession Florida struggling to rebound promise to be as tough as any in recent memory.
