The good news: Florida Governor Rick Scott's first year in office is coming to a close.
The bad news: He still has three years to go.
More bad news: Going into his second year in office, Scott has only a 26 percent approval rating, and he wants to change that. To do so, he's realized that he needs to work with the Republicans who control the legislature rather than dictating orders to them.
Combine Scott's cooperation with a Republican controlled legislature that could be as devistating to Floridians as last year's means lots more to lose in the upcoming session.
Scott hasn't really changed that much. He still touts job creation and giving corporations lots of incentives to bring their businesses to Florida as his highest priorities. But Scott was swept into office on the idea that, as an outsider, he wouldn't take the political insider as usual approach in Tallahassee. Unfortunately for him, he was outnumbered by insiders, and his staff were all but clueless on how to govern, much like Scott himself. This year, he's hoping to change that.
This year his goals are more realistic, he announced his budget in the Capitol without a crowd waving "Don't Tread On Me" flags and his team now includes longtime Tallahassee insiders. In other words, the former CEO is recognizing that while he is governor, passing laws isn't about telling the Legislature what he wants, but working with lawmakers to achieve what he can.
"I feel like the governor came in with a steep learning curve and has continuously improved," said House Speaker Dean Cannon, who added that Scott's new team will help. "Individually and in the aggregate, they all appear to be really good changes and I think that they're increasing his effectiveness ... At least from my perspective, we're very pleased."
Scott still wants corporate tax cuts, stripped down business regulations, fewer government jobs and to have many state employees contribute more for their benefits. He's no longer talking about cutting corporate taxes by about $1.4 billion in his first two years in office.
Instead of getting a rate cut, last session he settled for raising the corporate tax exemption, which cost the state $11.7 million. This session he wants to raise the exemption again, which will save businesses a total of $8.4 million.
"People like to live here. We don't have a personal income tax, if we don't have a business tax, then it will even make it even more logical that people are going to pick Florida first."
Yes, Scott's right. People do like to live here in Florida. However, it's debatable how long that will last given Scott's slash and burn policies. We can expect more of the same severe budget cuts this year.
Among cuts he's proposing are 4,500 government jobs, many in the state prison system. He also wants to raise the cost of health insurance contributions for many state employees. In all he wants to cut state spending $1.8 billion - about 4.6 percent - mostly from Medicaid by changing the way hospitals and doctors are reimbursed for providing care. He does, though, want to boost school spending by a $1 billion.
"It's one of these good news and bad news situations," said Democratic House Leader Ron Saunders of Key West, adding he's glad that Scott is boosting money for education, but it shouldn't come at the expense of other vital programs. He said he has had a few meetings with Scott and told him that Democrats also support jobs, but they're encouraging spending on infrastructure needs instead of corporate giveaways.
As far as his new approach to cooperating more with the legislature, Scott's current chief of staff comes from Mike Haridopolos' office, and that's good news to the Senate President who says this will only improve his relationship with Florida lawmakers.
Again, bad news for Floridians, with the added promise of what could be an even faster moving session than we saw last year.
For a preview of what's to come in the next legislative session, you can take a look at these summaries by Kenneth Quinnell at the Florida Progressive Coalition here, and here.
