There’s something strange that happens to politicians once they get into public office. The grand promises made to get them elected suddenly become unfulfilled dreams. The blame, they say, lies with the legislature through which all acts and laws must flow. That much we can all understand having seen the current do-nothing Congress spit and fight amongst themselves to the point that the U.S. government has become a do-nothing mockery of its former self.
We’re faced with the same sort of excuse mongering in Florida, where we have a governor who refuses to answer questions about equal rights and same-sex marriages, repeatedly sidestepping the issue by drawing attention to recent increases in new jobs in the state. The number being bantered around is 580,000. And, of course, Governor Rick Scott is using those figures as a soap box on which to glorify his success leading the state.
Unfortunately, like most things political, the numbers are misleading and the credit is misplaced. Just as Charlie Crist got hurt by the national economic downturn when he was governor from 2007 to 2011, so too is Rick Scott benefitting from the economic rejuvenation. Florida is one state that takes much in the way of Federal funding and much of its ebb and flow is pegged to the nation as a whole.
Where Gov. Scott is concerned, he pledged to bring 700,000 jobs into the state. On the surface 580,000 new jobs would seem like he’s made quite a bit of progress to the goal. What Scott fails to ever mention—and this is a good one—is that non-partisan economists at the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research released a long-term analysis of Florida’s job market estimated that Florida would add 1.8 million jobs between 2010 and 2018, regardless of who was in the Governor’s mansion in Tallahassee.
What is obvious is that while the Governor is busy dodging the subject of equal rights and his attorney general is appealing lawsuit after lawsuit in favor of same-sex marriage in the state, Gov. Scott had lowered taxes on businesses big and small. That lowered tax base has resulted in a drop in funding for public schools by $1.2 billion, while hiking tuition at public universities. It seems those special interest groups don’t fund themselves.
In addition, Gov. Scott ick Scott failed to expand access to affordable health care coverage to 1.1 million working Floridians. This has cost Florida $51 billion and 70,000 jobs according to those in the know.
And then there are those pesky scandals that see to follow those in political life. Gov. Scott’s Chief of Staff Adam Hollingsworth admitted he lied on his resume about his tenure at the University of Alabama, and then had conflict of interest issues when it was discovered that the recently spearheaded $200 million project All Aboard Florida (linking Miami with Orlando Airport via rail) is owned by one of Hollingsworth former employers. It takes on especially suspicious meaning when cast in the shadow of Scott’s rejection of $2.4 billion in federal money for a high-speed rail project that would have eventually linked Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
And let’s not forget that Scott’s original Chief of Staff, Steve MacNamara, resigned after a scandal surrounding his steering no-bid contracts to friends. And his Lieutenant Governor, Jennifer Carroll, who abruptly resigned after being questioned by federal agents about an illegal gambling scandal. Or Scott’s Education Commissioner, Tony Bennett, who resigned amid a growing scandal over policy changes he made while serving as schools superintendent in Indiana.
Does this make Rick Scott a bad governor? Nope. But it certainly makes his dodging on the issue of equal rights for the LGBT community very suspicious. What else is he hiding…Until next week….
