Gov. Rick Scott promised during his 2010 campaign that local economic development offices would have the right resources to recruit business to their areas, including specialists that would help local companies meet regulations and pursue government grants.
After Scott's first year in office, his staff told us, "Placing grant-writing and regulatory specialists in each local economic development office would require additional funding. Therefore, this has not been implemented yet." We rated Scott's promise Stalled.
At the start of Scott's fourth year in office, we sought an update about his progress. We reached out to Scott's staff, a spokeswoman at the state Department of Economic Opportunity and Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development organization.
Sean Helton, a spokesman for Enterprise Florida, sent us back lists of accomplishments during Scott's tenure, but none were specifically related to placing grant writing and regulatory specialists in each local economic development office.
This may be just one piece of Scott's overall agenda on jobs, but it hasn't happened. And we see no sign it will happen in the near future. We rate this Promise Broken.