It was not so much what Gov. Rick Scott said that was noteworthy, but what went unsaid during his State of the State address on Tuesday.
In roughly 2,300 words, Scott said nothing about medical marijuana or Medicaid expansion, and gave no direction on what he wants to see on the future of gambling in the Sunshine State. While he talked about more funding for education, he steered clear of discussing concerns about the number of standardized tests in public schools.
Sure, the jobs governor pointed out the state’s dropping unemployment rate and his calculations that Florida has created more than 700,000 jobs since his first election.
“In the last four years, the unemployment rate in Florida has dropped in half — from 11.1 percent to 5.6 percent — the second-biggest drop in unemployment in the United States,” Scott said.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott addresses a joint session of the Florida Legislature, Tuesday during his State of the State address. (AP Photo/Tampa Bay Times, Scott Keeler)
But in a speech that was nearly a third shorter than his previous four State of the State addresses, Scott seemed determined to avoid getting in the middle of any of the most controversial issues facing the Republican-dominated Legislature.
It was quite a contrast.
In previous speeches, Scott used his address as a platform to call for expanding Medicaid, major legal system reforms, changes to auto insurance regulations and cuts to Florida’s unemployment compensation system. While he won on some issues, others never got very far.
In addition, Scott dialed back the personal stories he’d used over the last couple of years in a bid to relate more with voters. In 2014 — an election year — Scott spent nearly a quarter of his speech talking about his mother and father and making references to his grandchildren and daughters.
This year, his only reference to family was acknowledging his wife, Ann, and their 43 years as a couple.
Then it was all business. Scott focused on past success and was more of a cheerleader of Florida’s economic recovery. He highlighted tourism and job growth in key job sectors, such as at seaports.
To be sure, Scott did ask for more tax cuts, but nothing like the $2 billion he sought in his first year in office. Instead, Scott asked for a cut in cellphone and television taxes that would be worth less than $4 a month to families who spent $100 on phone bills. And another tax cut proposal on college textbooks could save students up to $60 a year if they spent $1,000 on textbooks.
The most aggressive tax cut Scott asked for was a continuation of the sales tax cut on manufacturing equipment that expires in 2017.
While Scott is asking for $650 million in tax cuts, state legislators already have raised doubts about whether they can afford to give him all he wants, plus the increase in education funding he again called for on Tuesday. The prospects could dim further given that Florida could lose more than $1 billion in federal funding to aid local hospitals in funding indigent care. If that money dries up, legislators will be looking to patch a big budget deficit in addition to weighing requests for tax cuts and increased school funding.
As with the other big issues Scott avoided, there was no mention in Scott’s State of the State address about that potential budget-busting expense.
After the governor’s speech on Tuesday, Senate President Andy Gardiner told reporters that it is hard to talk about the tax cuts when the hospital funding issue remains unresolved.
