HB 1325 Talking Points

• Hi,. I'm here today because Representative (Name) will be voting on the House Economic Development Package, HB 1325, on Wednesday, and I'm very concerned about the bill
• I want to let Rep. (Name)  Your Representatives name -   to vote against this bill because I don't want my tax money to be given away to private businesses.
• I pay taxes to have essential government services - things like law enforcement, education, and roads.
• I don't pay taxes to give businesses an unfair advantage in the marketplace.
• I oppose any measure to renew or expand the incentive programs run by Enterprise Florida. The programs favor big businesses and out-of-state interests over our own, home-grown small businesses and startups.
• Enterprise Florida takes credit for helping us out of the recession, but that's not true; Enterprise Florida projects that it has helped create 110,421 jobs [1], both now and over the next few years. But our total workforce is over 9.6 million people [2]. This means that 110,421 jobs, some of which haven't even been created yet, only account for around 1% of all Florida workers. This number of jobs doesn't account for the big drop in our unemployment rate over the last several years. That credit goes to hard-working Floridians, who are creating economic opportunities without government handouts.
• Enterprise Florida says that it's helping diversify our economy, but that's not true;almost half of all incentive projects from 2000 to 2010 were for the manufacturing industry [3], but the percentage of our GDP from manufacturing has actually declined in Florida [4].
• Enterprise Florida says that this bill will help small businesses and startups, but there's no evidence that incentive programs help these businesses at all; over 85% of Florida businesses have less than 10 employees [5], making them ineligible for incentive programs which require businesses to have 10 or more employees.
• If the legislature has an extra $250 million to spend on cash handouts to private businesses, why isn't that money being given back to the taxpayers? After all, Governor Scott says that taxpayers know how to spend their money better than the government does.
• Government doesn't create jobs. Floridians do. So I hope Rep. (Name)  will vote against HB 1325, and instead work with us to find better ways of helping Florida grow.

ADDITIONAL INTERESTING INFORMATION

CHECK OUT PAGE 4 Of THE PRESENTATION BELOW AND LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE FLORIDA MEMBER INVESTORS

[1] http://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedContent/Committees/2014-2016/C...

THE FOLLOWING CHART IS FROM THE: US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS FOR FLORIDA

[2] http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.fl.htm

Other links should you wish to research further

{3} http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.fl.htm

[4]  t/presentations/economic-development/EconDevelopIncentives_Pre...
 [5] http://edr.state.fl.us/Content/presentations/economic-developme...

 As always, thank you for your dedication to these ACTION ITEMS

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better. It's not."

~Dr. Seuss