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Scott Says Tax Breaks Are Coming

Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday that he expects his budget blueprint to sail through the Legislature, promising it will include deep program cuts and more than $2 billion in tax reductions.

Two weeks into his first elected job, the governor promised that the budget proposal he plans to roll out Feb. 4 will include sharp spending reductions aimed at covering a $3.6 billion shortfall caused by the end of federal stimulus dollars flowing to Florida and a three-year decline in tax collections caused by the feeble economy.

But Scott still promises to make good on his campaign pledge to phase-out the state’s corporate income tax and cut property taxes.

“I’m going through every line item in the budget,” Scott said. “But I don’t think we should be spending this much money. I don’t think we do a good enough job of how we buy things.”

Scott shrugged off growing skepticism from fellow Republicans in the Legislature about whether the budget balancing act – which the new governor conceded was “thankless” – could include his promised property tax cut of $1.4 billion and a first-year rollback of more than $800 million in the state’s business tax.

House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said lawmakers were struggling to close the state’s budget gap, and saw little chance of tax cuts being handed out this spring.

“If there’s a way they can be reduced and still meet the critical needs, I’m open to it, but…it’s going to be very difficult, ” Cannon said, adding that it would be up to the governor to show lawmakers the path to tax-cutting. “I haven’t seen a way (to cut taxes) yet that I’m persuaded is doable,” Cannon said. But he added, “If there’s a workable way they can be reduced, great. I haven’t seen proposals yet that I think can achieve that.”

Scott didn’t provide any plans Wednesday. But he did offer a general condemnation to the state’s current approach to spending – a product of a dozen years of Republican control of the governor’s office and Legislature.

Scott said the state spends far too much on unnecessary services and that too many people see state government as a money-making venture.

“We’re not here to solve every problem,” Scott said. “We’re here to make life better and help people get jobs.”

The former health care executive also broadly described his approach to budget-making, likening it to his experience in private business. “You’ve got to pick and choose,” Scott said. “You can’t do everything. You’ve got to do the things that are the most important at the time.”

Scott reaffirmed his commitment to cutting state regulations, overhauling state agencies, and courting business leaders across the globe to help blunt Florida’s roughly 12 percent unemployment rate. He touted Tuesday’s announcement by Vision Airlines that it was adding flights through Destin in the Florida Panhandle as an example of an early success by his office in achieving his job-creating goal.

Scott said that if Vision’s expansion brought 150 jobs to Florida, it would slightly winnow down his promise of creating 700,000 new jobs over the next seven years.

By John Kennedy
The News Service Florida