Gov. Rick Scott makes local stop to rally support for budget priorities

Florida Gov. Rick Scott made five stops throughout the state on Thursday to rally support for economic development, tourism and fixing the Herbert Hoover Dike at Lake Okeechobee.

The second of those five stops came at PropLogix in Sarasota, 1651 Whitfield Ave. The building also happens to be the headquarters for Carlos Beruff’s residential development business, Medallion Home.

Beruff, who stopped by to say hello to Gov. Scott before heading to the Manatee County Commission meeting to hear the fate of his latest project, Aqua by the Bay, said supporting economic development and tourism makes sense to him.

“If we don’t have economic development, people don’t come to Florida,” Beruff said. “If we don’t have tourists, (then we don’t have) tourists fall in love, and they make Florida their home and I sell them a house.”

But for others present on Thursday, such as Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate and the founder of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Florida, supporting economic development doesn’t make sense. Recently, Gov. Scott took a trade mission trip to Argentina organized by Enterprise Florida, the state’s public-private economic development arm.

“What’s he doing in Argentina?” asked Cuevas-Neunder, who ran against Scott in the 2014 primary. “Puerto Rico has the best soils in the world for Florida to cultivate the products they need for the consumption of (Floridians.)”

Cuevas-Neunder said a domestic trade deal with Puerto Rico would help Florida prepare for the migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida that she’s predicting after the U.S. territory filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday.

Scott takes the “rising tides lift all boats” view on economic development. He contends that although almost two-thirds of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s projects have been awarded to just 10 counties in the state, any economic development project anywhere helps all Florida residents because of the tax revenue generated.

“EFI (Enterprise Florida Inc.) does all sorts of things,” Scott said. “They have rural county initiatives, they do trade missions and they also recruit companies. And by the way, there’s no risk in it. As a taxpayer, you get five times your money back guaranteed. So every county benefits because more money comes into our coffers when we get a job.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2017 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Gov. Rick Scott makes local stop to rally support for budget priorities."