On the campaign trail, Rick Scott talked a lot about being a proven job creator. In his 20-minute inauguration address on Tuesday in Tallahassee, he seemed to grasp how difficult that reality is going to be as he inherits the leadership of a state that has been contending with record unemployment.
Calling the current economic environment "the challenge of our times," Scott tried to humanize what those without work are going through, saying, "This morning more than a million Floridians got out of bed and faced another day of unemployment. For months they search for work, they fill out applications, they beg for interviews, they face rejection after rejection." And there was this: "For all of the unemployed, life without a paycheck is a desperate scramble to provide the basics." (Actually, Scott misspoke and initially said bacon). The new governor then said that his own father often went without work, and therefore he "had a clear memory of their fear and uncertainty as they struggled to provide for five kids. So for me, job creation is an absolute mission."
So what will he do to create jobs in a fashion that his predecessor, Charlie Crist, couldn't do? Well, for the former health care executive CEO, it's all about creating a good business environment. And to show he's serious, he called for a complete review of all state regulations, and in his first action he signed an executive order creating a state office of Fiscal Accountability and Regulatory Reform "to review all proposed and existing regulations to determine their impact on job creation."
Scott flubbed his line about getting rid of the programs that don't work, inserting the word "agencies" instead. After a moment he joked that such a flub would appear in media accounts, and of course that's right, especially when as a candidate he made disparaging remarks that led Alex Sink to say he wanted to eliminate the Department of Community Affairs.
