Rick Scott yesterday finally got into some specifics yesterday, unveiling his much hyped 7-7-7 plan that calls for seven steps to 700,000 jobs in seven years. In it, he says he wants to eliminate the business income tax, cut property taxes and lower worker compensation costs.
There's a lot to focus on in these plans, which can be accessed at Scott's website, including pension reform for state employees, which has become a particularly hot subject as cities and states find themselves in serious economic trouble with those obligations. But it ain't very specific. The plan there is "Aligning state employee pension contributions with other states could save almost $1.4 billion." Huh? Can we get some meat behind that bare boned statement?
Scott also wants to go after I guess you'd call "welfare cheats." The plan calls for:
Imposing more stringent standards on non-compliance with work requirements and require drug screening for recipients, Florida could save $77 million.
In his category of Accountability Budgeting, Scott says that he will:
Return Florida’s state and local government expenditure burden to at least the 2004 level before spending ballooned out of control.
But on a conference call quickly convened last yesterday by members of the McCollum economic team, they tore apart the plan, specifically mentioning that last action was completely unrealistic, for failing to account for population growth and inflation.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2010.