We’ve heard this self-serving, economic tune before.
Gov. Rick “Let’s Get To Work” Scott or an administration minion reminding us how personally responsible the hands-on Scott is for Florida’s increasingly improving economy. That includes a 5 per cent unemployment rate and, as outgoing executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity Jesse Panuccio recently pointed out in a major-media-market op ed, the creation of more than 1 million jobs by the private sector in five years.
“One million jobs. Take a moment to reflect on how we got here,” wrote Panuccio. “It didn’t happen by chance. It happened because we have a governor who is laser-focused on economic growth.”
We also have a governor who’s never met a business-cycle spurt after an economic bottoming-out he couldn’t take credit for. But here’s some context.
First, Florida’s recovery is largely a function of the national recovery, not the lowering of already low taxes or the product of Scott’s poaching in Democratic-governor states. Second, the lion’s share of those jobs are in the lower-paying, service-producing sector. Third, let’s not forget the public sector jobs that were jettisoned early on. Fourth, back in 2010 the non-partisan Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research projected that Florida would likely add about 1.05 million jobs by 2018–regardless of who was governor.