Duval Delegation

Rick Scott harangues Duval Delegation, pushes incentives in Jacksonville
Florida Politics
A.G. Gancarski
March 20, 2017
When Gov. Rick Scott comes to your town to hold a “Fighting for Florida’s Jobs” round table, that means your GOP State Representatives crossed him on an incentive vote.
Scott started off March in Rep. Travis Cummings‘ district, where he repeatedly jabbed at Cummings and Rep. Paul Renner for opposing Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida.
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Reps. Cord Byrd, Clay Yarborough, and Jason Fischer all voted against incentives, as did Democrats Tracie Davis and Kim Daniels.
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“We’ve done over 900 projects around the state,” Scott said, “and we don’t put the money out unless the jobs are created.
Scott discussed tourism, of course, in the context of Visit Florida.
“In our state, one out of six jobs comes from tourism,” Scott noted. “For every dollar we spend, we get three dollars back on taxes … if we lost all our tourists, taxes would go up $1,500” per household.
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“Cord Byrd, Kim Daniels, Jason Fischer, and Clay Yarborough — they voted to get rid of Enterprise Florida along with Tracie Davis,” Scott said.
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“Jobs aren’t going to grow themselves. We’re going to have to go out and get them,” Love said.
Councilor Aaron Bowman, who also is Senior VP of JAXUSA, noted that 2,500 Amazon.com jobs wouldn’t have come to Jacksonville without incentives.
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Councilor Danny Becton, whose district houses Johnson and Johnson, noted that “it was close” between Jacksonville and Ireland — and incentives make the difference.
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Benefits of incentives go beyond Duval. In Nassau County, the Lignotech deal — trumpeted months back as a source of high-wage skilled jobs — may be an anomaly, if incentive money dries up.
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The case for Florida, Scott said, is made in “telling our story.”
In that context, incentive programs offer the megaphone.