On Jan. 4 Gov.-elect Rick Scott will be sworn in. On Jan. 5 he will be sworn at.
Not really, but this may be the shortest honeymoon since Britney Spears’ Las Vegas marriage.
Recall that when Scott was elected last month, it was the closest gubernatorial race in Florida in 134 years. A mandate he is without. And memories of Scott earning scorn for his Medicare-fraud nexus, treating the media like deposition attorneys, threatening to cut $1 billion from corrections and, well, buying an election remain fresh. Currently he is soliciting donations from the usual suspects for a recession-be-damned inaugural celebration, pitching the ill-advised concept of universal education vouchers and being as equivocal as he can on the federally-funded, Orlando-to-Tampa high-speed rail project.
It’s now too late for Scott to either pay for his own inaugural or re-organize and re-label it as a bare bones, highly symbolic “celebration of fiscal restraint.” So much for the savvy message of bi-partisan thrift that might have been. The cost is already well over $2 million.
It’s also too late for the hardest of the visceral hard core–those still embittered and enraged that he is actually the governor of this state. There are no second first impressions.
But it’s not too late–unless, of course, he’s already calculating re-election–for this: Going truly out of the traditional box for some apolitical, common-sense, Florida-first, bottom-line thinking.
This state has been desperate for revenue-raising reform for decades — and next year’s budget now shows a $3.5 billion deficit. The basic formula still harkens back to the LeRoy Collins era.
So why not take maximum advantage of being the ultimate outsider, the antithesis of a “career politician” who’s beholden to no special interest? Why not dust off the gubernatorial bully pulpit that Jeb used to equate FCATs and accountability and make the case for taxing services, eliminating unjustified sales-tax exemptions and getting serious about joining a compact of states to tax internet retailers? If not now, when? Never?
At worst, this could be considered Plan B — just in case privatizing, downsizing, reforming state workers’ pensions and cutting property and corporate taxes isn’t a panacea for deficit elimination and renewed growth. Especially since federal stimulus money–more than $2.5 billion worth–won’t be available next year.
Florida is long overdue for a chief executive with enough vision and political guts to wean Florida, no longer the protean state of go-go growth, from its antiquated, revenue-raising formula. The quintessential outsider should find such a scenario downright inviting.
And since Scott, unlike most Florida politicians, has never paid political tribute to any of the Cuban-exile community politicians, he would have more room to maneuver for Florida’s economic benefit when it comes to the politically sensitive subject of Cuba. Other Southern governors have led trade missions to Cuba. Why not the CEO of the state that could benefit most–especially during an ongoing, jobs-bleeding recession?
And why not take advantage of the opportunity to remind the Obama Administration that U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the new chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, only speaks for her small, strident, vendetta-agenda constituency and not the rest of the state. And that what’s best for the Sunshine State is not a priority for the sovereign state of South Florida and Little Havana.
A real outsider with no political debts to pay off could make a real difference, especially for the Port of Tampa and the surrounding region, as Florida’s chief executive. A non-“career politician” wouldn’t be seeing Cuba through a “third rail”-issue lens, but a practical, pragmatic one.
But most immediately, Scott needs to get on board with high-speed rail. This is no transit starter kit that needs environmental and ridership studies; or is vulnerable to right-of-way speculation; or will stick the state with open-ended financial commitments. This project’s been decades in the making, and thanks to the federal government’s commitment of $2.4 billion (plus the state’s earlier set aside of $280 million in matching funds) the entire construction cost is now accounted for.
Instead of being coy, if not disingenuous, about “feasibility studies,” Scott needs to get up to speed and get to work, as it were, on the reality of rail and its impact on the future of Florida, most notably its key corridors. That means understanding high-speed rail’s catalytic role in I-4 development scenarios as well as its value as an alternative to a chronically clogged highway. It also means acknowledging that the private sector has long been factored into the design, operation and maintenance equation. Engineering and site work are already under way.
Gov. Scott needs to do the right thing, which rarely–as is the case here–is also the easy, obvious thing. He needs to take the high-speed rail money and run the state with 21st century priorities, ones which will also, ironically, yield jobs. Such as the 90-mile, high-speed rail line from Orlando to downtown Tampa.
Enough with the posturing over “feasibility studies” and private-sector interest. Scott needs to read the minutes of previous meetings. Then, indeed, “let’s get to work.”