Gov. Scott rolls out $74 billion proposed budget

Calling it “It’s Your Money Tax Cut Budget,” Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday rolled out a $74 billion proposed budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Scott’s proposed budget includes more tax breaks – $500 million – for business, a lowering of the state’s debt by $170 million, a doubling of state spending on Everglades restoration and a reduction in corporate filing fees of $33 million.

See Gov. Rick Scott’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, on “It’s Your Money Tax Cut Budget” below:

We have had a lot of great announcements from our “It’s Your Money Tax Cut Budget” over the last few weeks. But, today, I am excited to announce our final proposed budget.  

We laid out our “It’s Your Money Tax Cut Agenda” to outline the three major priorities in our budget. Those three areas were:

One – cutting taxes by $500 million to help Florida families.

Two – reducing state debt to decrease the financial burden on our children and

grandchildren.

Three – eliminating government waste to help keep taxes low.

1 – Cutting Taxes

First – Our budget will return more than half a billion dollars to Florida taxpayers – by reducing taxes and fees for Florida families and businesses.

The biggest piece of our tax cut package is a tax cut of more than $400 million by eliminating the 2009 annual motor vehicle tax increases.

This budget will undo that tax hike and give financial relief to the millions of Floridians who are paying fees on over 13 million annual registrations. 

The next part of our Tax Cut Agenda is a $100 million reduction in the sales tax on commercial rent, which costs businesses about $1.4 billion per year.  Making it more affordable for businesses to lease space means they can keep more of the money they earn and help hire more Florida workers to create more jobs. 

Florida is the only state that imposes this tax, and we must keep gaining ground to keep Florida the best place to start and grow a business.

Our budget also includes a $21.6 million cut to the business tax to exempt another 2,000 taxpayers.

This takes our total to 81 percent; this means 81 percent of businesses will no longer pay this tax and can continue to create jobs. 

Additionally, the budget also lowers business filing fees by more than $33 million. But it doesn’t stop there. In addition to our package of more than $500 million in ongoing tax relief for Florida families, this budget also includes two significant sales tax holidays.

We have a 10-day back-to-school sales tax holiday and a 15-day hurricane preparedness sales tax holiday. 

These two sales tax holidays will save Florida families more than $82 million as they buy hurricane and school supplies. 

This budget marks another historic tax cut budget for Florida families.

Over the last three years, we have cut taxes 24 times, and now we will give another $500 million back to Florida families. 

Our tax cut record in these four budgets represents a sharp contrast to the four budgets before we took office.  We have cut taxes dozens of times, but the previous four budgets raised taxes by more than $2 billion.

before we took office. We have cut taxes dozens of times, but the previous four budgets

2 – Reducing Debt

The historic nature of this budget doesn’t stop with our tax cuts.

Second, we have made record strides paying down state debt.

From 1994 to 2010, outstanding state debt more than tripled. In fact, during the four years before we took office, state debt increased by $5.2 billion.

But, over the last three years, we have reduced state debt by $3.6 billion.

This budget goes even further – paying down another $170 million in state debt.

3 – Eliminating Government Waste

The third major area of our “It’s Your Money Tax Cut Agenda” is eliminating government waste.

This budget reflects a savings of $287 million, which has been achieved though several efforts, including: 

$74.9 million from operational efficiencies;

$4.2 million from contract renegotiations;

$14.4 million from real estate savings;

$37.9 million from reduced debt service obligations and fees;

Because of our work to cut taxes and eliminate waste, this budget also reserves funds and pays back money the previous administration raided from the Budget Stabilization Fund.

Our budget has…

$1.7 billion in General Revenue;

$1.1 billion in the Budget Stabilization Fund;

$600 million in the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund;

And $1.7 billion in other trust funds;

Which totals $5.1 billion.

Our “It’s Your Money Tax Cut Budget” provides record-setting total operating funding for our K-12 public schools, our state colleges and our state universities.

In my budget, our K-12 public schools will receive $18.84 billion.

This is the highest funding level in Florida history – exceeding the $18.75 billion provided in 2007-2008. 

This budget also includes $10.6 billion in state contributions for Florida schools – the highest ever… for the second year in a row. 

Florida’s teachers earned the top score in the US two years in a row for teacher quality.

Florida’s Hispanic graduation rate is number one in the nation.

Florida’s 4th grade students ranked 2nd in the world in an international reading survey.

And we have recently found out that Florida has the highest African American achievement gains in the U.S.

We have a lot to be proud of, but our goal is to be the best state for every child to get a great education so they can live their version of the American Dream.

Before I conclude, I want to talk about just how far we have come since I announced my very first budget.

Florida shed more than 800,000 jobs in the four years before I took office. Taxes increased…debt increased… and the unemployment rate rose to 11.4 percent… all while hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost. 

Florida was in a hole and for four years, there was just more digging…

In 2011, I brought together economic development experts who said that not only was Florida not competitive for big jobs projects, but we were often not even considered. 

Today – that has all changed.

Unemployment is down to 6.2 percent.  We have added more than 462,000 new private sector jobs.

We have paid down debt and cut spending…and our real estate market is on the rebound. 

Hertz is bringing 700 new jobs to Estero and investing $50 million into the community.

USAA is hiring 1,215 Floridians in Hillsborough County and investing more than $164 million into the community. 

Univision is creating 346 new jobs in Miami, and investing $274 million.

Amazon is hiring more than 1,000 people in the city of Lakeland and Hillsborough County.

And Northrup Grumman is bringing 1,000 new jobs to Brevard.

About 500 people a day move to this great state, and our tourism industry is setting records with 90 million visitors in 2012 – up from only 81 million in 2009. 

But we aren’t just working to create 700,000 jobs or get to a certain unemployment number. We want to build an economy where our children and our grandchildren can compete and succeed. 

Right now, my grandsons don’t know what they want to be. (Except for Auguste, he wants to be a cowboy.)

As their grandfather, I want to give them the encouragement, support, and the love they need to discover and pursue their own paths. 

And as Governor – I want to create an opportunity economy in Florida that will create jobs for generations to come. 

When I was growing up my family didn’t have much. My parents often struggled to find work. I remember when our family car was repossessed – and I saw the devastation in my father’s eyes and realized ho important a job was to a family. 

We want to create an opportunity economy in Florida. Letting people keep more of the money they make means families have more money to invest in their children and purse their dreams.

That is what our It’s Your Money Tax Cut Budget will help us do.

My message to the people of Florida is this: It’s your money. We want you to keep more of it in your pockets. Invest in your hopes and dreams right here in Florida. Our state has such a bright future ahead. Let’s keep working.

Thank you.