Governor Rick Scott continues to roll out plans to get Floridians back to work. Like many of his fellow Republican lawmakers Scott wants lighter corporate regulations and an ease on the business tax as well, to spur job growth. During Mr. Scott’s run for governor he promised to totally eliminate the corporate tax and to create 700,000 jobs for the state of Florida.
Scott better get a move on creating those jobs as the state has only generated 87,000 new jobs since the start of the year. This, coupled with a near 11 percent unemployed rate, I believe he needs a new approach.
But Scott didn’t stop with cutting the corporate tax and reducing regulations, he’s also calling for the state’s unemployed to take skills assessments, eliminate business rules that suppress job growth, and stop irresponsible state spending.
Through all of that, one thing is painfully clear: Rick Scott does not care about the people of Florida.
Florida has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates with nearly a million people out of work. The jobless rate ticked upwards of 10 percent in June of 2009 and has yet to fall below that point.
Scott also took time to address the Occupy Wall Street movement and the subsequent protests across the country. He believes the people involved are frustrated with too much government regulation and taxes. Scott was sure to mention that those who elected him believed in his ability to create jobs and that his plan to dismiss so much government regulation will solve some of these issues.
What Scott has shown through his new jobs plan and his tacky comments on the nationwide Occupy movements is that he’s completely out of touch with what the people of his state are saying and what they truly need. Yes, Floridians need jobs and yes, we need a plan to create them. But, for Scott to emphasize the need for businesses to receive better treatment than the people of Florida shows that he has a serious empathy deficiency and he’s a careless politician.
Scott is a direct representation of what the Occupy movements are all about. The people, including me, are tired of politicians who give more toward special interest and business than they give toward the people who put them in the position to lead. Gov. Scott spent over $70 million of his own money to become Florida’s top politician and so far we have seen a negative return on our investment in him. He has a great opportunity to create something for the public that will not only aid in the restoration of the state’s job force, but inject a sense of trust from the people toward our politicians.
Scott has said that he will cut irresponsible government spending, but that is the wrong way to lead Florida toward prosperity. He should instead generate a jobs creation bank, partially funded by the companies who want to move their business to the state of Florida. If a company wants to move to Florida, then we should require a certain amount of their revenue go toward this new bank aimed at getting Floridians back to work.
The opportunity is now, to act on behalf of the people and not the organizations that employ them. The people didn’t start this mess, but we are being punished as if we did. The chant goes: “The people united will never be defeated.”
Governor Scott, its your turn to act on behalf of the people instead of against them. If not then you will soon face an ugly political demise.
