As part of his 2010 campaign promise to grow jobs, Rick Scott promised to invest in a fund to grow high-tech jobs.

"I will invest in the state Innovation Fund that brought Scripps and Burnham research labs to Florida, developing high-tech clusters with high-paying jobs," Scott said.

Both Scripps Florida in Palm Beach County and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Orlando brought biomedical and science jobs. But to be precise, Scripps Florida was announced in 2003 before the fund existed, although the state tapped other piles of money to help bring it here.

Business incentive funds have had a tumultuous ride during Scott's tenure. Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran went to battle over the future of Enterprise Florida, the state's business development arm which ultimately was stripped of most of its job incentive money in 2017.

In Scott's first year in office, he proposed zeroing out the innovation incentive fund as well as some other economic development programs, although he called for redirecting some money. The last Innovation Fund project was in 2011 — a $6 million award to support an aeronautical research and development program in Fort Lauderdale, said Sean Helton, Enterprise Florida spokesman.

In 2012, the Legislature appropriated $43 million to the Florida Opportunity Fund to underwrite high-tech projects and create Florida jobs. The Legislature created that fund in 2007 and first funded it in 2008 with about $29.5 million in state money to create investment programs and tapped federal money for clean energy investment and venture capital programs. The fund is an investment entity that operates much like a private investment fund.

As of June 2018, the fund had approximately $126.7 million in total assets, including approximately $45 million in cash. An annual report about the fund shows that there were investments in renewable energy, medical devices, information technology and manufacturing.

Scott promised to invest in the Innovation Fund but got rid of it. However, during his tenure the state has invested in the Florida Opportunity Fund, which performs a similar function.

We rate this promise Compromise.

Gov. Rick Scott's mantra can be boiled down to this: jobs, jobs, jobs.

Within his 7-7-7 plan -- bringing 700,000 jobs to Florida within seven years -- on his campaign website, Scott promised:

"I will invest in the state Innovation Fund that brought Scripps and Burnham research labs to Florida, developing high-tech clusters with high-paying jobs."

Burnham refers to the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and its permanent campus in the Orlando area, opened in 2009. Both Scripps Florida in Palm Beach County and Burnham have brought the sort of biomedical and science jobs that any area of Florida would covet. But to be precise, Florida didn't use the Innovation Incentive Fund to lure Scripps here. A division of the California-based non-profit Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida was announced in 2003 before the fund existed and other piles of state and county money sealed that deal.

We pulled some background on the Florida Innovation Incentive Fund from an April 29, 2008, article in the Palm Beach Post which described it as "the state's deep well of cash for luring life-science institutes to Florida." It said the fund is "a matching grant program in which cities and counties contributed the rest of the money."

We also found background on the fund in this Florida Senate report from October 2008.

Scott released his budget proposal on Feb. 7, 2011. On his budget website, we found that the innovation incentive fund -- and other economic development programs such as brownfield redevelopment projects, quick action closing fund and Florida small business development center network -- were all budgeted for zero dollars in 2011-12.

But we also noticed that Scott proposed an overall increase of about $350 million over two years in economic development programs: rising from about $216.9 million in 2010-11 to $366.6 million in 2011-12 and $566.5 million in 2012-13.

In Scott's budget bill, he wants all funds appropriated to the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development within the Economic Development Tools appropriation category to go toward funding several programs, including the Innovation Incentive Fund.

"The amount of funds allocated to each of the individual programs funded in the Economic Development Tools appropriation category shall be determined by the director of the Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development," the bill states.

We spoke to Stuart Doyle, spokesperson for Enterprise Florida, a partnership between businesses and government and chaired by Scott that describes itself on its website as the "principal economic development organization for the state of Florida."

"It's not only the Innovation Incentive Fund; there are other incentive funds zeroed out as budget line items for next year," Doyle wrote to us in an e-mail. "What you don't see are line item amounts for specific incentive programs, which would enable the pool of funds designated for economic development to be used less restrictively to recruit businesses and for business retention. This approach would give the state more flexibility in attracting businesses and increasing jobs without the risk of and concern over exhausting funds in a particular incentive program."

Scott promised to invest in the innovation fund. What he has proposed is eliminating the fund as a line item while consolidating and ultimately expanding economic development dollars to give the state more flexibility to attract business. His idea is just a proposal at this point, awaiting legislative action. For now, we rate it In The Works.