Chris Hudson

We’ve all the heard the saying: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. That doesn’t stop people from doing it anyway.



Case in point: In order to boost Gov. Rick Scott’s agenda, the professional insiders, special interests, and the lobbying class in Tallahassee are desperately trying to put lipstick on the pig that is “Enterprise Florida.” In fact, they’re running television ads across the state trying to fool voters about this state agency’s true nature.



Enterprise Florida is one of the most egregious examples of corporate welfare in the Sunshine State. Quite simply, the agency gives out taxpayer-funded subsidies and credits to well-connected businesses. This is ostensibly supposed to boost the economy and create jobs, but in reality it only props up a lucky few at everyone else’s expense. Put another way, both the agency and the businesses that benefit from it are feeding at the taxpayer trough.



The good news is that some principled lawmakers finally recognized Enterprise Florida for what it is. When the state legislature convened this past January, Scott and the business community set their sights on funneling a whopping $250 million in taxpayer money to the agency. But when this proposal hit the House, principled legislators refused to back it.



No wonder. Not only is Enterprise Florida a trigger for corporate welfare, it also is long on promises and short on results.



For example: It was supposed to create 200,000 high-paying jobs by 2005. Yet through 2012, and after approving more than 1,600 incentive deals worth more than $1.7 billion, it had it had barely delivered 50% of its job goal since 1995. The net gain is probably far lower – by spending taxpayer money to prop up some companies, the agency puts competing businesses at a disadvantage. That’s exactly why the government isn’t supposed to pick winners and losers.



The program was also supposed to be equally funded by both public and private sources. Yet as of 2014, more than 90 percent of the program’s funding came from government sources. Taxpayers are right to wonder why they’re basically the only ones with skin in the game.



Then there’s the matter of double-dealing and serious ethical problems.



Where to start? How about in 2012. That year, companies that were either vendors for or recipients of Enterprise Florida’s handouts turned around and provided $500,000 in bonuses to the agency’s employees. It’s a clear-cut case of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” with taxpayer money on the line.



Nor has it gotten better since. After the legislature rejected Scott’s plan in March, he commissioned a review of the agency’s activities. The report found that Enterprise Florida’s CEO spent taxpayer dollars on dinners, hotels, and renovations to his Miami office. It also found that the agency was bloated and top-heavy, with a huge number of executives.



Another investigative report from the Naples Daily News uncovered that the former CEO contracted his former employee at the Port of Miami to consult for Enterprise Florida with a $158,000 annual salary. Not only that, but the CEO deliberately circumvented the agency’s policy that contracts worth more than $100,000 be approved by the board. How? By splitting the contract into two smaller ones.



No wonder the real champions of free market principles decided to stop funding Enterprise Florida earlier this year. Giving this agency an extra $250 million in taxpayer money would have been a victory for corporate welfare and a loss for Florida taxpayers and the state’s economy.



The bottom line is that we should be thanking the principled legislators who didn’t buy what the lobbyists and the special interests were selling about Enterprise Florida. No amount of lipstick can hide that big of a pig.



Chris Hudson is Florida state director of Americans for Prosperity.