Senate Meeting to Bring More Jobs to Florida
By Janelle Floyd
Senior Outlook Writer
The Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development met at the Florida Senate to discuss how to bring more jobs to Florida.
The purpose of the appropriation is to authorize the spending of public money on an annual basis.
During the 92-minute meeting, multiple state employees presented to the subcommittee board incentive programs to bring more businesses and people to the state.
Bill Johnson, Florida Secretary of Commerce and President & CEO of Enterprise Florida Inc., explained in his presentation how many businesses were brought to Florida in the last year.
Gartner brought 400 jobs, Trader Joe’s brought 450 jobs, Navy Federal Credit Union brought 5,000 plus jobs, etc.
“As we look to become the premier number one state to create jobs, what I am charged to do,” Johnson said talking about the most recent job creation. “We need to become more transparent to make sure we are doing a good job in terms of accountability.”
During Johnson’s presentation, Senator Geraldine Thompson asked, “What are some of the reasons businesses do not come to the state of Forida?”
Johnson responded to multiple businesses lost, including Boeing, CME Group and Mercedes-Benz, in his power point. “The Mercedes-Benz headquarters moved to Atlanta and moved 800 jobs to Georgia. We are not successful in every project we go after and typically the two key things is the available amount of resources in Florida and making the process as easy as possible for companies.”
He also gave in his power point other reasons why businesses leave/don’t move to Florida: incentives, site location, work force, tax climate and financing. All of which, Johnson stated, “Enterprise Florida is working on.”
According to a recent report from Governor Rick Scott, Florida’s September unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent, the lowest rate in seven years.
With the current unemployment rate Scott commented, “[The] announcement that Florida businesses added 8,700 news jobs last month and our unemployment rate is at the lowest level in seven years is great news.”
“By working to diversify our economy, we want to make Florida first for job creation so families have more opportunities in Florida than any other state to live their dreams.”
To find out more information about the subcommittee and future meetings visit flsenate.gov.
