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Scott backing off job promise?

Posted Oct 5, 2011 by William March

Updated Oct 5, 2011 at 04:31 PM

Is Gov. Rick Scott backing off his campaign promise to create 700,000 jobs in Florida during two terms as governor?

He says no, but Democrats and some news reports say yes.

The essence of the argument is whether Scott’s promise was to create 700,000 jobs in addition to the normal, expected growth in employment. During his campaign, Scott said he would create those 700,000 jobs in addition to natural growth, but has been quoted recently as saying every job created in Florida during his term counts toward fulfilling his promise of 700,000 jobs.

In fact, he’s been quoted in some news reports as denying he ever said his promise was on top of natural growth, despite widely available recordings of him saying it.

Scott based much of his campaign on his “7-7-7 plan,” which he said would create 700,000 jobs in seven years by cutting taxes and regulations.

One of the first questions he was asked about that by reporters was whether he meant 700,000 jobs in addition to those expected to be created in the normal course of events, without any major changes in tax or regulatory policy, and on several occasions, Scott said yes.

In a debate at Nova Southeastern University in October 2010, a reporter on a panel noted, “Some state economists have said that if there is an economic recovery, no matter who is governor, the economy will actually generate more than those 700,000 jobs. How do you respond to that?”

Scott’s answer:  “Our plan is seven steps to 700,000 jobs, and that plan is on top of what normal growth would be.’‘

You can see the debate here; the exchange starts at about 3 minutes and 10 seconds in.

At the time, state economists were predicting the state would add about 1 million jobs by 2018, based on no major major changes in tax or regulatory policy. You can see the state predictions here. (The page is awkward to use—with control + click, uncheck the “statewide” category and then re-check it to get an Excel file.)

It shows state employment going from 7,816,348 in 2010 to 8,942,689 in 2018, an average increase of 140,793 per year.

Asked about news reports that Scott now denies having said his promise was on top of natural growth, governor’s office spokesman Brian Burgess said by email today, “The Governor’s jobs target has never changed.  It’s always been to create at least 700,000 jobs in seven years on top of what the economy might otherwise gain or lose.”

However, he added, “Economic forecasts will continue to change, and be revised, over the next seven years.  None of them can be arbitrarily added or subtracted to the Governor’s jobs plan to create some new target number.”

That appears to refer to some reports suggesting that Scott’s promise of 700,000 additional jobs, with 1 million expected anyway, amounts to a promise of 1.7 million.

But Scott himself, meanwhile, has appeared to say something different in other interviews.

In an interview with the Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board last week, asked, “Your pledge was for 700,000 in addition to normal growth, wasn’t it?’’ Scott replied, “No, 700,000.’‘

And in August, when an Associated Press reporter asked Scott about the promise of 700,000 jobs in addition to natural growth, he replied, “No, that’s not true,” and that he didn’t know who made that claim. When the reporter noted that 700,000 was 300,000 less than projected, he said, “That would be nice if a million jobs were created. If you look at the trajectory of the state and the country when I took office, that’s not what was happening.”

“I ran on a campaign of getting the state back to work and creating 700,000 jobs over seven years.”