Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who has a little more than a year left in office, is releasing his final set of budget recommendations on Tuesday.
And it's sure to contain many of the same items that the Republican governor has recommended in past years: A smattering of tax cuts, probably a small increase in school funding (possibly backed by a rise in property values), and his evergreen request that all state workers pay the same for health insurance. (Legislators have rejected this idea year in and year out.)
But to sound vaguely like a country song, Scott is a long, long way from Eustis, where he rolled out his first budget at an event filled with tea party supporters.
In that first ever proposal, Scott rolled out a spending plan that called for nearly $5 billion in spending cuts in 2011-12 fiscal year, which would then be used to help with $2 billion of recurring tax cuts.
When he first ran for governor, Scott constantly touted his "7-7-7" plan that he said would lead to nearly 700,000 jobs if the plan's seven steps were followed over seven years. (Those 700,000 jobs were on top of normal growth, Scott said at the time, but that's an argument for another time.)
A central plank of this plan to help the state's economy was the elimination of Florida's corporate income tax. Scott promised to completely get rid of it by 2018, starting with a $458 million reduction in year 1 and a $1 billion cut in year 2. (Another promise was to substantially cut the property tax rate charged to homeowners for schools.)
"It’s not a budget that dabbles. It doesn’t offer a little something for every special interest or sweeteners for certain people," Scott said at the time. "It’s a two year budget that faces realities now, rather than putting them off for later. It makes the hard decisions. But it makes the right decisions for Florida’s future."
He added: "We will capture more jobs if other states have a business tax that Florida does not have. We are competing with 49 other states and many countries for entrepreneurs who start, grow and move companies based on where they can get the best return."
But Scott's push for sweeping and deep budget cuts paired with a mammoth tax cut fell flat with the GOP-controlled Legislature.
Still grappling with the fallout from the Great Recession and a budget shortfall, legislators sent Scott a budget that included some tax cuts (mostly property taxes charged by water management districts), spending cuts and a contentious move to deducting money from public employees to help pay for their retirement plans.
Instead of cutting the corporate tax income rate like Scott wanted, legislators instead agreed to exempt businesses from paying the tax if they only made a certain amount of money. Over two sessions the exemption level was raised from $5,000 to $50,000.
The move exempted many businesses from paying the tax, but as Scott leaves office it remains a substantial tax source for Florida government. Legislative economists predicted the state would wind up taking in about $2 billion this year from the corporate income tax.
Scott has tried to include further tweaks to the corporate income tax in his annual spending plans, but he has been unable to make any substantial progress on his initial pledge.
And this year - ahead of a likely campaign for U.S. Senate - the governor didn't even try.
He recently rolled out a modest tax and fee-cutting package that includes tax holidays and a rolling back of driver's license fees. His package was entirely targeted to residents and individuals and included no tax cuts for businesses or
When pressed about it, Scott said recently that he still would like to cut the corporate income tax, but he did not express any disappointment that he was unable to achieve what once was a top goal.
"You fight everyday for the things you think are a priority and that's what I have done," Scott said. "I would love to cut more taxes, but there's actually three branches of government."
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