THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, September 30, 2016………. A fight involving the next state budget is already taking shape after Gov. Rick Scott called for lawmakers to provide economic-incentive money to help recruit businesses.
A day after incoming House Speaker Richard Corcoran said he views incentives as “corporate welfare,” incoming Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala said he intends to work for the governor’s $85 million proposal if the money is available.
Latvala, who will oversee the Senate’s budget efforts the next two years, has previously butted heads with Corcoran and other members of the House over incentives. House and Senate leaders have disagreed about issues such as helping pay for professional sports stadiums and providing money to the public-private Enterprise Florida to try to lure companies to the state.
“If we’re going to have economic development, and all my polls that I take or see say that economic development jobs is still the number one thing on people’s minds, if we’re going to have economic development, if we’re going to have a jobs effort, we need to fund it,” Latvala, R-Clearwater, told reporters in Tallahassee.
“I don’t know the magic number, and that obviously we have to look at the budget and see what we’ve got,” Latvala continued, “but I support the concept of funding some incentives to go find jobs.”
On Thursday, Scott announced that his budget proposal for the 2017-2018 fiscal year will include $85 million for economic incentives. Lawmakers will consider Scott’s proposal as they draw up a budget during the legislative session that starts in March.
During the 2016 session, Scott asked for $250 million for incentives that would have been used by Enterprise Florida in recruitment efforts. The proposal got Senate backing, but died amid opposition from the House.
Corcoran, a Land O’ Lakes Republican, responded quickly Thursday to Scott’s request, saying in a release, “There will not be any corporate welfare in the House budget.”
Corcoran’s stance is backed by the conservative-advocacy group Americans for Prosperity-Florida, which also opposed Scott’s $250 million request earlier this year.
“The legislators that stood against this corporate welfare slush fund this year did the right thing by not expanding this failed program,” Chris Hudson, the group’s state director, said in a prepared statement Thursday. “Lawmakers should be finding ways to cut spending, not take away valuable resources that would better serve Florida families.”
Latvala said he respects Corcoran’s philosophical objection to incentives, but the longtime senator said he has his own take.
“We just have to get it together, and then everybody gets a little bit of what they want,” Latvala said. “That’s the way it’s been for my 15 years here, and I hope it will be this year.”