Returning to her priorities when she was sworn in earlier this year, Mayor Teresa Jacobs, in her first State of the County address Friday said, Orange County is growing stronger and she felt confident that the community will build a vision together.
Jacobs highlighted the recent strong growth in the tourism industry and noted the county is projected to become the economic center for the state, as the Brookings Institute has indicated. While Tourist Development Tax receipts had increased by 16 percent for the first five months in 2011 and Central Florida had hit the 50 million mark in visitor arrivals last year, Jacobs warned that the county could not be complacent.
“I am proud to say, we are the tourism capital of the world”, Jacobs said. But we can’t rest on our laurels, nor should we be content with that status. Over the past decade, we have been working hard to propel our worldwide acclaim to greater economic diversification.”
Although the jobless rate has declined from 11.9 percent to 9.8 percent, Jacobs said it was “unacceptably high” and hence a large part of the agenda is focused on growing the local economy. Referencing the nine economic and job summits that had been held across the county, Jacobs said these had been “extremely helpful in developing a blueprint for creating jobs.”
Jacobs also referenced a tax relief measure for new or expanding businesses, passed by the Florida Legislature and which will go before Florida voters next spring.  The extent to which such a program, if implemented, will spur jobs is unclear, given that business tax contributions provide a mere 0.2 percent to the state’s revenues.
Once again, Jacobs made a plug for the stalled SunRail commuter rail project which she said would generate jobs and spur economic development.
“…I’ve had several one-on-one-meetings with Governor Scott”, Jacobs said. “He has listened and asked crucial questions, questions that he ought to ask, questions I’ve asked myself, about ridership and costs. I remain hopeful the governor will give SunRail the green light very soon.”
Projected to create close to 11,000 jobs in the short-term and another 150,000 over the long term, Scott, earlier this year placed a hold on the commuter rail line claiming he wanted to conduct a financial review of the project. He froze $235 million in SunRail contracts, delaying groundbreaking of the project this spring, even as he killed the proposed high speed rail system between Tampa and Orlando.
Jacobs returned to her favorite themes of professionalism, integrity, innovation, fairness and accountability, all values which support Orange County’s mission to serve its citizens.
“To make the county more ‘Citizen and Business Friendly’, I issued an executive order to establish a ‘One-Stop Shop’ for permitting”, Jacobs said. “…Now, you can walk into the first floor of the County administration center and everyone you need is right there, at your service.”
Jacobs also said that task force groups had been set up to come up with recommendations aimed at cutting government red tape and simplifying the approval process.
Read the Entire 2011 State of the County Address of Mayor Teresa Jacobs HERE.
