Governor Rick Scott is getting more militant as he defends Enterprise Florida, the business recruitment arm House Speaker Richard Corcoran is targeting for elimination.
What Corcoran calls corporate welfare Scott calls job creation. Now the governor is stressing the importance of an Enterprise Florida sister group, the Florida Defense Alliance, which protects and defends military infrastructure.
“And we’ve got 20 military bases and three unified commands. Why wouldn’t we want to continue to help make sure we keep all the jobs, you know, help them meet their mission, but on top of that, keep all the jobs here?”
The alliance considers Florida’s military industrial complex a 73-billion-dollar economic engine powering 768 thousand jobs. The Senate would preserve Enterprise Florida spending, but both chambers are about 4 billion dollars apart as they begin budget negotiations.
