Scott unveils state budget proposal, takes shots at GOP critics

Saying his GOP critics are “turning their back” on jobs and “don’t understand how business works,” Gov. Rick Scott proposed a state budget Tuesday that includes substantial sums for taxpayer-funded business recruitment and tourism promotion efforts, two programs that have come under fire in the Republican-controlled House.

By including $85 million in his budget for business incentives and $76 million for Visit Florida, the state’s tourism promotion agency, Scott is setting up a clash with House Speaker Richard Corcoran, who has slammed such programs as "corporate welfare."

Scott lashed out at his critics Tuesday during his 2017 budget unveiling in a meeting with the press in the state Capitol.

“I believe that those who oppose investing in growing businesses simply don’t understand how business works,” Scott said in defending economic incentives.

Later, Scott said anyone who thinks the state does not need to continue tourism marketing “is turning their back on valuable jobs.”

And so the battle lines are drawn for the two-month legislative session that begins in March. Scott and Corcoran appear on a collision course over government efforts to boost the economy, but in other areas they are likely to find more agreement.

Scott’s $83.5 billion budget also proposes $618 million in tax cuts, something Corcoran generally supports. The bulk of Scott’s proposed tax cut - $454 million - would go toward reducing the sales tax on commercial rent payments.

Scott’s budget is a $1.2 billion increase from last year.

It includes an additional $216 to public schools for each K-12 student, or $7,421 total per student.

Scott also proposes to increase the state workforce by 327 positions.

Most of the new jobs are in the Department of Corrections but the governor also wants to add 46 positions in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to create “counterterrorism squads” in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. And he wants to add 21 epidemiologists to fight the Zika virus outbreak.

Among Scott’s other budget proposals:

$360 million for water clean-up, including money set aside for springs and reducing Lake Okeechobee pollution

$10.8 billion for the Florida Department of Transportation, an increase of $100 million

$600 million in university performance funding, up from $500 million this year