A.G. Gancarski
A Thursday meeting between Jacksonville City Councilmen Jim Love and Aaron Bowman proved to be mutually beneficial.
Love, unlike last year when he thought Bowman lacked enough council experience for the VP role, agreed to back Bowman.
This brings the pledge count in the race for the vice-presidency to two for Bowman and three for Scott Wilson.
And Love, who is preparing to file a resolution in support of Enterprise Florida, got the co-sponsorship of Bowman, who handles job recruitment for the Jacksonville Chamber via his vice-presidency of JAXUSA.
The two men were co-sponsors of the expansion of Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance, and both men spoke of the importance of incentives for economic development.
Love said that Enterprise Florida “leveled the playing field” between Florida and other states, which — as Gov. Rick Scott will tell you — have their own incentive packages.
Bowman, meanwhile, asserted that “Enterprise Florida is not about money, but about being open for business.”
All of that is music to the governor’s ears.
The Love/Bowman position on EFI aligns with the Chamber’s official stance, along with that of Mayor Lenny Curry, who endorsed incentives last week in a conversation with Florida Politics.
“Without the state funding,” Curry said, “we would have had trouble closing some of the big deals that we closed … We use our tax dollars in a way that’s responsible to taxpayers, and we’ve been able to use the state incentives the same way. I hope they can figure out a way to continue to give us the opportunity to have access to state incentives.”
Love is restricting his resolution to Enterprise Florida, as he believes that Visit Florida is on firmer ground in Tallahassee currently.
