Scott Lays Out 2012 Jobs Agenda
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBSMiami.com) – Florida Governor Rick Scott outlined his 2012 job creation agenda Wednesday morning and it includes several of the hot button conservative issues being pushed in both Washington and Tallahassee.
Governor Scott said that he wants to streamline business permitting and eliminating rules and regulations on businesses. So far, Scott's office said he currently has 1,000 rules ready to repeal and another 1,500 that can be revised.
Scott said reducing the rules, some of which include environmental rules and other areas Democrats have pushed over the years will open up the business community to hire more workers.
Scott called for more tax cuts for large corporations. He proposed to reduce the number of companies paying business taxes by twenty-five percent in the coming year by increasing the corporate income tax exemption from $25,000 to $50,000.
All of the cuts are in Scott's plan to eliminate business taxes in the state.
However, Scott has not said how he will make up for the eventual donut in the state budget that will come from the millions of dollars that come in from business taxes every year.
Scott said that he wants to reform the unemployment system in Florida and said he wants to call it a re-employment system.
Scott will do this by requiring training as a part of unemployment benefits in the Sunshine State. The training, Scott said, will assess a worker's skills with current and future job opportunities and retrain them for new jobs.
In a bit of irony, Scott said that he will prioritize the advancement of port, roadway, and other transportation projects.
The irony comes from Scott's determination that Florida couldn't use a $2 billion grant from the U.S. government to help build high-speed rail lines in the Sunshine State.
Scott also said that the way to guarantee stability to Florida businesses is to continue to balance the budget without raising taxes.
But, with the state facing a possible one billion dollar budget shortfall next year, the cuts to programs like education and other areas could be significant.
Finally, Scott indicated that he wants the K-12 and higher education institutions to focus more on what he labeled STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
