Wondering how Florida’s governor will live up to his promise of slashing billions out of the state’s budget? You’re about to find out.
Gov. Rick Scott will propose a two-year budget for Florida rather than just an annual one, because he thinks it's more forward-looking, a spokesman said Friday. The governor appeared before a group of South Florida business leaders that day to seek their support for his spending plan, which he says will slash business and property taxes by more than $2 billion.
The state faces a projected budget shortfall of $3.6 billion to $4.6 billion.
Scott spokesman Brian Burgess wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the governor's business experience leads him to believe that it's best to look beyond the immediate impact of financial decisions, which is why he favors the two-year model.
"He will unveil two years worth of budget projections that can be examined together or separately," Burgess wrote later.
The Florida Constitution, though, requires legislators to adopt annual budgets, and lawmakers are not bound by the governor's budget recommendations. Burgess said he did not know whether Scott would push legislation to switch Florida to a two-year budget process.
Scott plans to release his first budget proposal Monday at a Tea Party rally in Eustis. The new Republican governor, a multimillionaire former hospital CEO, addressed a group of investors in Hollywood a day after giving a similar outline of his budget aims at a Tampa manufacturing plant. He said it's all part of his plan to lure more businesses to the state.
During his campaign last fall, Scott promised to create 700,000 additional jobs over seven years. Those jobs would be on top of about 1 million that economists expect to be created in that time as Florida's economy recovers.
"I'm calling companies all the time. People are very interested in coming to Florida," Scott told business leaders at the Florida Venture Capital Conference. "We are going to be the winner. We are going to be the state that's No. 1 in job creation."
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Scott spent the week traveling the state offering glimpses of his budget recommendations. He wants to reduce spending in the $70.4 billion budget by about $5 billion. He has said he expects to save $1 billion over two years by streamlining the state government and consolidating agencies. Scott has also proposed saving the state $2.8 billion over two years by cutting pension benefits for state workers, teachers, and some local government employees, and requiring them to contribute 5 percent of their salaries to the Florida Retirement System.
He's been vague about other spending cuts, though, and legislative leaders have expressed skepticism about cutting taxes given the budget shortfall. But Scott says his budget proposal will be balanced.
