By John Kennedy
The News Service of Florida
A wide-ranging jobs and economic development bill – weighted by a $187 million, three-year price-tag – cleared the Senate budget committee Thursday but looks likely to be winnowed down by a more cautious House.
The measure (CS/SB 1752), approved 21-2, pumps $30 million into the state’s threatened space industry, while providing millions more in tax breaks to companies hiring unemployed Floridians, manufacturers buying new equipment and various tax incentives for film production, boat- and aircraft manufacturers, and on building material used in enterprise zones around the state.
Much of the focus in the Ways and Means Committee centered on the package’s cost – which is also shadowing the proposal in the House.
Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, chairman of the House’s Economic Development and Community Affairs Policy Council, has already ruled too costly the Senate plan being advanced by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, a political rival backing Murzin’s opponent in a state Senate race.
Gaetz, though, defended the spending and the tax breaks as needed to fire the state’s economy, which has left lawmakers struggling to fill a $3.2 billion budget shortfall. The package’s cost for 2010-11 is $76 million.
“The only way Florida’s economy gets better is to have more Floridians have jobs,” Gaetz said. “We can’t eat all the seed corn. We’re suggesting that in a budget north of $62 billion, we can spend $76 million.”
Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, pressed Gaetz to say where lawmakers would find the jobs and tax-break money – other than relying on a portion of an anticipated $1 billion in federal Medicaid assistance expected to be steered to Florida by next month.
Gaetz said using some of that federal cash to free general revenue that could be used for tax breaks was appropriate – since creating jobs may ease the 2.7 million Floridians now receiving Medicaid. But Rich wasn’t buying Gaetz’ approach.
“I still have great discomfort here,” Rich said of the measure, expected to go before the full Senate next week.
Business groups praised the legislation, contending it would go a long way toward easing the state’s 11.9 percent unemployment rate. Many of the provisions are backed almost annually by such member-driven organizations as the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida. But this year, the tax breaks have earned the added sheen of being aimed at creating jobs when the state’s jobless numbers are at a three-decade high.
Meanwhile, environmentalists and Florida city and county organizations challenged provisions in the bill that ease water-permit requirements for construction projects less than 40-acres, accelerate the time-period for environmental permitting approval and make it more difficult for local governments to review water, air and wetlands proposals. The state’s Department of Environmental Protection also is pushed to allow more online permitting.
Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said lawmakers worried about the cost of the bill’s business and jobs incentives were failing to distinguish between, the “cost and the price.”
“Look at the cost of doing nothing. This is the price,” Bennett said.
Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, also said that in his Space Coast area, this fall’s expected close of the Space Shuttle program will cost as many as 24,000 jobs related to the faltering space industry.
“If those people are unemployed, get on Medicaid, you can only imaging the hit that will have on the state,” Haridopolos said.
Rich and Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, were the only senators opposing the measure. Rich said she feared the package would drain dollars needed for health and social service programs, while Lynn said it was larded with giveaways not related to job creation.
“I wish that this not be a train, and instead focus on the jobs that Floridians need,” Lynn said.
