Scott Revises Stance Again On Fla. Jobs Promise
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4)- Gov. Rick Scott again changed his stance Friday on the jobs promise he made during last year's campaign in a written statement titled in part, "Setting the Record Straight."
The Republican governor recently has been insisting he never said during the campaign that the 700,000 new jobs he promised over seven years would be on top of whatever increase in jobs was afforded by "normal growth."
In the new statement, though, he acknowledged his intent was to create that many jobs "no matter what the economy might otherwise gain or lose."
Now Scott is also disputing a job gain estimate state economists made last year. They predicted that no matter who was governor Florida would gain about a million jobs in seven years -- 300,000 more than Scott promised.
In a videotaped interview last July, Scott said his jobs would be "on top of" the forecast. In a debate last October he said his jobs would be in addition to "normal growth."
Over the past couple months, Scott has been denying he or his campaign ever made those statements. Asked about it in an Aug. 19 interview with The Associated Press, Scott said, "No, that's not true. ... I ran on a campaign of getting the state back to work and creating 700,000 jobs over seven years."
Scott made similar denials in other media interviews. That earned him a "Full Flop" this week from PolitiFact.com, a fact-checking website created by the St. Petersburg Times.
While the new statement acknowledges Scott's intent last year was for the 700,000 jobs to be in addition to "what the economy might otherwise gain," the caveat "or lose" is a new twist.
In his statement, Scott questions the economists' million jobs estimate.
"No one, not even economists, can predict the future," Scott said. "What can be verified is actual job creation data."
Scott also isn't backing off on his claim that all 87,000 private sector jobs created since he took office are the result of his personal focus on attracting new business and his policies -- mainly cutting taxes as well as state regulations and spending -- and that none are the result of normal growth. Overall job growth, though, has been only 71,600 due to the loss of government jobs.
Florida's total non-farm employment as of August was 7,223,000. That's 132,000 fewer jobs through the third quarter of this year than the economists from the governor's office, Legislature and Department of Revenue had predicted last July -- the forecast Scott once said he'd beat but now disputes.
"Instead of focusing on hypotheticals, I'm focused what will be accomplished through my 7-7-7 plan," Scott said. "Floridians will judge me not on what an economist in Tallahassee predicts, but on actual job growth each month."
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