Under Fire: Enterprise Florida Gives Peek At Job Creation Numbers

October 24, 2013

After facing criticism from a national group, Enterprise Florida on Wednesday released a brief preview of its annual report on efforts to expand the state’s economy.

The annual report, which is expected to be presented to the Enterprise Florida board October 31 in Miami, will claim the public-private agency was responsible for 35,393 new and retained jobs in Florida last year, with $1.955 billion in capital investments by private companies.

The preview doesn’t mention the amount of incentives the state has offered to private firms to move to Florida or to expand within the Sunshine State.

Enterprise Florida released the information shortly after Good Jobs First, a national group that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development, issued a report highly critical of privatized economic-development agencies such as Enterprise Florida.

“The cultures of these private development corporations fail on such basic competencies as vetting deal applications or accurately monitoring and honestly reporting job-creation outcomes on costly subsidy packages — not to mention vetting of staff and oversight of spending,” the Good Jobs First report said. The report also questioned a $70,000 bonus that was awarded to Secretary of Commerce and Enterprise Florida President Gray Swoope in August.

The Good Jobs First report relied heavily on media reports and Integrity Florida, a group that has criticized Enterprise Florida for Swoope’s bonus and for a lack of transparency in contracting and in the agency’s website. At the Enterprise Florida meeting in Miami the board is expected to also approve a $45,000 base-salary increase for Swoope as part of a new contract that would increase his pay to $275,000 a year.

Comments

3 Responses to “Under Fire: Enterprise Florida Gives Peek At Job Creation Numbers”

  1. Dan Owens on November 1st, 2013 9:58 am

    A key source used to criticize the new public/private partnership is Good Jobs Now, a “a national group that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development.” Left out of the article is that members of this group’s board of directors have strong left-leaning ties to the Sierra Club, Moveon.org, the Communications Workers of America and other unions. Two of this organization’s board members are extremely liberal: Hector Figueroa, the head of 32BJ Service Employees International Union in New York City, and Madeline Janis, National Policy Director of Los Angeles Alliance for the New Economy (LAANE).

    I cannot find any businessperson (or Southerner) connected to Good Jobs Now. I do find anti-business activists and obvious supporters of the liberal wing of the Democratic party, unions and the Obama Administration. So, this is the political/research group that we want to take cues from on how to develop and attract jobs?

    May I suggest that we carefully vet the “authoritative sources” we quickly quickly quote to bash the Republicans’ attempt to modernize our current economic development efforts?

  2. Jane on October 25th, 2013 3:09 am

    The young people who went to school here and got a good education were smart enough to move away! Why would they stay here when they can make decent money somewhere else?

  3. 429SCJ on October 24th, 2013 3:10 am

    Rather than wait for job creation, people are going to have to obtain the education prerequisite for the career fields that are open.

    @Young people joining the military for upward mobility, I strongly encourage you to seek career fields which provide training, that will afford opportunities for good employment after your military service.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News