What's the 'State Of The State' of
Florida?
It depends on who you listen to.
(Posted January 17, 2012 02:05 am)
By Les Coleman
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Hearing Governor Rick Scott and his critics last week was like listening to the start of a famous Charles Dickens tale - and whether this is the "best of times" or the "worst of times" depends on who's doing the talking.
Scott told the opening session of the Florida
Legislature that his first year in office was the best
of times.
"In the past year, Floridians - not government - created
almost 135,000 new, private-sector jobs. So, we netted
more than 120,000 total jobs in the first eleven months
of 2011."
The Florida AFL-CIO sees it differently, citing
unemployment at a persistent 10 percent rate, with
thousands of teachers and law enforcement personnel laid
off. They characterize Scott's first year as the "worst
of times" for Florida.
AFL-CIO spokesman Rich Templin points out that Governor
Scott now has a 26 percent approval rating, making him
the most unpopular governor in the country.
"What the Governor needs to really do is abandon these
failed policies of 'no regulation,' continually cutting
services, and cutting the things people in Florida
really rely on, as a way to create jobs."
Governor Scott says he wants $1 billion of new education
spending. His critics point out that it won't make up
for the $2.7 billion that was cut from education in the
past year. And he wants to trim $2 billion from Medicaid
for low-income seniors to free up the new money for
education, a move that two out of three Floridians have
said they don't agree with.
Scott's speech is on YouTube, at
www.youtube.com. A transcript is also online, at
stateline.org.