Gov. Rick Scott took yet another presumptuous, pre-victory lap on jobs the other day. In town for the Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, he noted that the private sector has added more than 500,000 Florida jobs in his three-plus years. And that included 22,000 in April. Attorney General Pam Bondi, of course, led the way in sycophantic praise.
No mention, of course, of context.
One, Florida’s recovery is largely a function of the national recovery, not the lowering of already low taxes or the implementing of Scott’s poaching strategy. Two, most of those jobs–it was more than 80 percent last month–are in the lower-paying, service-producing sector. Third, let’s not forget about the “7-7-7” plan. That was 2010 Scott shorthand for 7 steps over 7 years for the creation of 700,000 jobs.
Recall what the non-partisan economists at the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research said later in 2010 about Florida’s long-term job outlook. They concluded that Florida would likely add about 1.05 million jobs between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2018. And, moreover, it didn’t much matter who was governor.
Scott was then forced into clarification mode. Make that 700,000 jobs in ADDITION* to the ones that state economists had forecasted, he conceded. Nearly four years later, the asterisk is never noted–let alone an updated: “7-7-1.7 million” campaign mantra.