According to Florida chapter of American’s for Prosperity (AFP), the $250 million Enterprise Florida looks to receive this year from taxpayers in their efforts to bring outside business to the sunshine state, is nothing more than a corporate EBT card increase.
As the Florida legislature moves to take a vote on funding Enterprise Florida, AFP and EF’s President and CEO Bill Johnson, are locked in a war of words over the grassroots group’s current campaign to paint the proposed funding as simply being “corporate welfare.”Why is Enterprise Florida, an almost solely publicly-funded organization, going after AFP, a private company?
Let’s back it up a bit here.
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
When bills are introduced in the Florida Legislature, the bills usually go through a committee process where they can be properly scrutinized, or vetted. In the case of the $250 million, this committee process was somehow skipped over, and the funding proposal has gone straight to House floor for a vote.
The Sunshine State News had this to add about how this bill hit the fast track:
Andres Malave, a spokesman for AFP, took to the airwaves Monday and called out how the bill is moving through the Legislature. Malave said the bill is so unpopular with constituents and several elected officials that the House “highjacked” it and blocked the public from having input. That way, representatives could rush and not add additional oversight to how Enterprise Florida uses funds. The bill was scheduled to be heard in the House Finance & Tax Committee but was pulled from the agenda.When asked how this happened, Malave told Sunshine State News that a little known rule was applied to remove the bill from its last two committees stops to quickly move it to the House floor for a full vote.
“Using a rule like 7.19(a) isn’t completely uncommon,” Malave said. “But using the rule to fast-track one of the most contentious political footballs of the year should make lawmakers weary upon getting the opportunity to cast that vote in just a few short days.”
So much for legislators trying to appear as if they are following all the rules.
Ok, back to the ongoing fight between AFP and Enterprise Florida.
EF CEO Bill Johnson is a registered Republican, but can anyone explain to me why he attended a recent Bill “Bubba” Clinton hosted fundraiser in Miami for his wife Hillary’s presidential campaign?Is the Hillary Clinton for President campaign really behind Enterprise Florida?
For the tin foil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists out there, Enterprise Florida is Hillary Clinton for President.
With that said, someone tell me why Johnson went to the HC fundraiser?
Continuing on with the little spat that AFP and Enterprise Florida are having.
AFP’s Florida director Chris Hudson takes issue with EF taking the credit for all the jobs created under Governor Rick Scott.“Government should quit taking credit for creating jobs…Floridians are doing that and legislators should focus on reducing the regulatory burden and improving the tax climate by slashing wherever possible.”
EF’s Bill Johnson put out this statement that was then pushed out by Governor Scott’s Executive Office:
“Yesterday, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) launched an ad to oppose the new $250 million Florida Enterprise Fund, citing it as ‘corporate welfare.’ However, Governor Scott’s proposal would support Florida’s efforts to win competitive projects with a guaranteed return on investment to ensure taxpayer dollars are protected while helping grow jobs in our state,” Johnson said. “This fund would only invest state dollars in companies when they meet their job creation and capital investment requirements, while allowing Florida to compete with other states for major job creation projects.
“According to recent news reports, Koch Industries (No. 2 on Forbes America’s Largest Private Companies list), which funds AFP, has benefited from $196 million worth of inventive money from various governments,” Johnson added. “ In addition, Koch Industries’ own spokesperson said in response to taking advantage of tax incentives that they ‘will not put ourselves and our employees at a competitive disadvantage in the current marketplace’ by declining incentive funds.
“Koch Industries is willing to use taxpayer money to benefit their business, but opposing the Florida Enterprise Fund means they will not let small and growing businesses in Florida access incentive dollars,” Johnson concluded. “AFP should immediately suspend their campaign against the Florida Enterprise Fund, which would help small and growing businesses create jobs for everyday Floridians — not just corporate giants. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
AFP’s Hudson has something to say about this, as he usually does.
“Newsflash, AFP is not Koch Industries.And spreading any amount of misinformation to that point, doesn’t change the fact that AFP is composed of thousands of hardworking Americans who have tasked us with putting an end to the crony corporate welfare spending sprees that lawmakers have doled out for far too long. AFP has a long and consistent history of opposing all forms of corporate welfare, no matter what companies or industries benefit.
There is more…
From the looks of it, EF will probably get their $250 million. Why would anyone doubt it?“Executives at Enterprise Florida, Inc., and the state employees who pushed out this erroneous attack on a private company, could better spend their time doing the job that taxpayers are paying for them to attempt to accomplish, at a rate of nearly 90-10 from taxpayer contributions in their supposed public private partnership,” Hudson added. “EFI, who has come under serious internal scrutiny of late, claims that they are trying to help small businesses create jobs, but the reality is 85% of Florida businesses have less than 10 employees and don’t qualify for the lavish handouts Bill Johnson and company want to dish out. EFI says they want to diversify the economy, but the reality is that almost half of all incentive projects from 2000 to 2010 were for the manufacturing industry. Despite that generous support from taxpayers, the percentage of our GDP from manufacturing has actually declined.”
The Republican-led Florida Legislature would benefit from playing nice with the Executive Office.