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February 2013
Executive Summary
Floridians have entrusted Enterprise Florida, a public–private partnership focused on economic development, with significant public resources to deliver high quality job creation results, yet the organization has failed to accomplish its goals. Why has Enterprise Florida struggled as an economic development program? To better understand its operations, we take a close look at the incentive agreements executed by Enterprise Florida in the 2012 fiscal year. We selected 2012 because it presents the most recent data. It’s also a year that the Florida Secretary of Commerce has boasted of being an exemplar of success, referring to previous years’ efforts as “marginal at best.”
In addition to illustrating the failure to meet legislative expectations, this report documents Enterprise Florida’s apparent conflicts of interest, the appearance of a pay-to-play scheme for winning favorable treatment and its repeated practice of picking winners and losers in the marketplace through targeted business, favoritism, and selective incentive deals.
This report does not find that any business or corporation named in the report has done anything illegal or at all wrong by seeking incentives from Enterprise Florida or by serving on its Board. In fact, the companies included in the report are some of Florida’s best corporate citizens. Working within the existing Enterprise Florida model of “economic development” to gain a competitive advantage in the market place would be expected of a company that wants to succeed and grow in this state.
What this report examines is the results of current policy as enacted by Florida’s elected officials that has resulted in years of failed objectives, waste, and at least the appearance of conflicted interests. We have to ask – what are Florida’s taxpayers getting in return for Enterprise Florida’s investments and do these deals amount to anything more than corporate welfare?