Guest AuthorFlorida started to privatize its economic development functions in 1992 with the enactment of Enterprise Florida Inc. and abolished the Florida Department of Commerce in 1996.
In 2011, Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature created the Department of Economic Opportunity. One of its responsibilities is to manage the state’s contract with Enterprise Florida.
The president and CEO of Enterprise Florida is Gray Swoope, who also serves as the secretary of commerce, one of only five direct reports to Scott — even though he is not a state employee. Though technically he’s a vendor not subject to all of the state’s ethics requirements — including financial disclosure — Swoope has an office right next to the governor.
Enterprise Florida is our state’s most glaring example of cronyism and institutional corruption. The organization engages in pay to play: It sells seats on its board to corporations for $50,000 and then gives away taxpayer-funded subsidies and vendor contracts in return. These built-in conflicts have been present at Florida’s public-private partnership for economic development since its beginning.
Enterprise Florida is less than halfway to its original goal of 200,000 higher-paying, high-tech jobs — supposedly by 2005. More than 60 percent of projects have produced zero jobs.
Just in the last two years, several Enterprise Florida deals have failed, including agreements with a CEO arrested on corruption charges, a convicted cocaine trafficker and several firms that have declared bankruptcy. A significant number of deals with other companies that failed to deliver on their jobs promises weren’t publically revealed.
Enterprise Florida regularly treats its staff to lavish travel. It recently took 20 staff members on a junket to Paris at a cost of more than $300,000 to taxpayers. As an example of how Enterprise Florida gives wildly inflated information to the public, the group stated that its weeklong trip would provide a return of $521 for every $1 spent in Paris.
The Legislature, suspicious of the way Enterprise Florida was handling public money for business recruitment, cut its 2013-2014 budget for subsidies from $111 million to $45 million (Enterprise Florida and Scott had requested $278 million).
Reform ideas for lawmakers to consider next session include:
— Enterprise Florida should be prevented from doing business with its board-member companies.
— Pay and incentives for Enterprise Florida staff should be based on actual jobs created for Floridians rather than projections from deals that often fail.
— To increase accountability, lawmakers may want the secretary of commerce to be confirmed by the Senate like other agency heads.
— Legislators should require that the Enterprise Florida staff, with taxpayer-funded salaries, follow the state ethics code and file financial disclosure reports with the Ethics Commission.
— All Enterprise Florida contracts for subsidy deals and those with vendors should be posted on CFO Jeff Atwater’s Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System website.
— The Legislature should require Enterprise Florida to use the state’s more open vendor-bid system for procurement.
As lawmakers consider a necessary overhaul of Enterprise Florida, a first step should be an investigation by the auditor general regarding the Paris trip and the possible misuse of taxpayer funds.
