Haridopolos and Cannon: Job Creation is Job #1

Dec 23, 2009

OP-ED
by Mike Haridopolos and Dean Cannon

When the throngs gather in Times Square to herald a New Year of hope, many Floridians will be all too glad to close the books on 2009. For too many Florida employers, working families and small businesses, this has been a very tough year, and almost every Floridian knows a friend or a family member who has lost a job or is otherwise suffering as a result of this crippling recession.

In November, unemployment rose to 11.5 percent—a figure representing 1,056,000 jobless Floridians who are still struggling to find work, according to the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation. That is the highest jobless rate since May 1975, more than 34 years ago.

This news lends profound urgency to our mission as legislators to help restart robust economic growth in our state.

Creating jobs will be job No. 1 for the Florida Legislature in the 2010 session, and as Florida’s leaders, we must take smart and aggressive steps to provide new incentives for job creation in Florida and remove government obstacles to growth.

That is why, this week, we announced our intention to conduct a statewide-focused Florida Jobs Summit, scheduled for Jan. 14-15 in Orlando, to help develop an effective plan to grow our economy and to make Florida more attractive to new investment that will spur the creation of new, good-paying jobs.

This Jobs Summit will bring together diverse stakeholders representing business, government, education and labor to discuss and develop a coherent agenda for immediate action by the Florida Legislature to raise the financial fortunes of families, employers and communities.

This jobs initiative has the full support of Gov. Charlie Crist, who intends to contribute policy recommendations. Members of the Florida Cabinet are also being asked to participate at the summit.

Already we have early expressions of support and plans to participate from Associated Industries of Florida, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Retail Federation, the National Federation of Independent Business — along with key labor groups such as Florida AFL-CIO and our teachers’ Florida Education Association.

President Reagan said government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem. As leaders facing this problem, we must have the courage to get government out of the way of job creation. This commitment includes a focus on developing a meaningful state strategy for action in three key areas.

First, we must identify and remove barriers to the development of new jobs. Today, industries such as energy, manufacturing, construction and land development are hobbled by intrusive regulations that slow growth. Whether by reducing these regulations, by abolishing barriers to investment or by cutting taxes, Florida has many options for promoting growth and generating jobs. We must act on these options.

Second, we must develop appropriate financial and tax incentives to lure new jobs to Florida. For companies that are considering expansion or relocation, we need to make sure that Florida is one of the most attractive states in which to do business.

Third, we must enable existing employers to create new jobs and retain existing jobs. It is a central conservative insight that incentives matter, and we must ensure that our state’s tax and regulatory incentives are structured in a way that rewards work and job creation.

Getting our state’s economy growing again and generating jobs is a task that will require cooperation and teamwork by Floridians of all professions and political persuasions. To a certain extent, it also will require the government getting out of the way so our state’s employers can put people on the payroll.

If you are a teacher, you may have an idea of how to better prepare new high-school or college graduates to compete in a tough job market. If you work in retail, you may have an idea of how to put money in people’s pockets to get them buying again. And if you are a small-business owner, you may have encountered state or local regulations that don’t make sense but could be improved in a way that would help you hire new workers.

We encourage you to contact our offices and to share these ideas by e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

With your ideas, we can leverage the full resources of the state of Florida to ensure that we strengthen our economic base and begin creating good-paying jobs in communities across our state.

In a spirit of nonpartisan cooperation, we can reach consensus on an economic agenda for Florida that makes job creation the No. 1 priority for 2010, and the No. 1 outcome at year’s end.

Reprinted from the Tallahassee Democrat

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