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.
