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Proposed Budget Cuts Hang Over Enterprise Florida Meeting

Nick Evans

Enterprise Florida’s board of directors are trying to accentuate the positives at their meeting in Tallahassee this week.  The agency is tightening its belt as lawmakers sour on funding the public private business recruiter.

It hasn’t been a great year so far for Enterprise Florida.  House Speaker Richard Corcoran continued his campaign against what he terms corporate welfare—again leading the charge to refuse incentive funding and this year adding cuts to the operational side, too. 

But Florida Power and Light executive Eric Silagy says the agency’s marketing dollars are well spent in comparison to other large states like California, New York and Texas.

“Those three states combined are spending close to a quarter billion dollars on doing the same thing that we’re doing with $8.5 [million],” Silagy says. 

“And frankly they’re not doing it as well because they’re not getting the same kind of impression and feedback that we are.”

State lawmakers approved $16 million to keep the lights on at the agency—about $7 million less than it was hoping for.

Nick Evans came to Tallahassee to pursue a masters in communications at Florida State University. He graduated in 2014, but not before picking up an internship at WFSU. While he worked on his degree Nick moved from intern, to part-timer, to full-time reporter. Before moving to Tallahassee, Nick lived in and around the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years. He listens to far too many podcasts and is a die-hard 49ers football fan. When Nick’s not at work he likes to cook, play music and read.