While he may have passed on jumping into the Republican primary to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida CFO Jeff Atwater raised his profile last week with a series of national media appearances.

Atwater appeared Wednesday on Fox Business where he was asked about the state of Florida’s housing market. The state CFO insisted that things are better and pointed to the lowering of taxes -- namely corporate and property taxes -- in the state.

“It began with creating the climate for success,” Atwater insisted before saying that housing prices are stabilizing. “It’s showing a good trend line. It stabilized and now it’s heading in the right direction."

Atwater was asked what the state can do to correct the problems that led to the housing mess in the Sunshine State.

“You have to first trust the marketplace,” Atwater said, before adding that government-backed housing finance programs helped lead to the crisis of too many new homes with no buyers. “The government was complicit in all of this. Where rates were kept nationally, we were encouraging this kind of construction activity.”

Atwater said he is hopeful the state is turning around, noting that it is expected that 190,000 new residents will move to Florida this year.

Insisting Florida is having a “comeback,” Atwater said he hopes the state will create a “diversified economy” while he trusts that Americans will engage in “rational behavior after the recent experience” of the housing crisis.

Atwater also appeared on “Taking Stock” with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, where he stressed his conservative credentials while talking about his job responsibilities.

“It’s actually a broad portfolio of responsibilities,” Atwater told Fox. “We really focus on those things that can help keep the dollar in the hands of Florida’s consumers. If we can keep down the cost of government, they’re going to lead us back strong in this recovery." 

But, citing his 25 years in the banking industry, the CFO said Washington is standing in the way of small businesses. Calling small businesses the “backbone of our economy,” Atwater insisted that new laws are making it tough for small banks to extend credit to them. He maintained that banks are now forced to focus more on compliance than with helping customers due to a number of new federal regulations including Dodd-Frank.

“The Dodd-Frank laws are placing burdens on community bankers,” Atwater insisted, adding that he thinks the new rules are hurting small businesses instead of the large banks that may have been the targets of the legislation. “We need to tell Washington to get off their backs.”

Still, Atwater expressed optimism about the future of the state, noting that there are 120,000 new jobs in the Sunshine State this year.

“We have job growth coming back,” Atwater added, pointing to lower unemployment rates and insisting that Florida is following a different game plan when it comes to small businesses than the Obama administration is in Washington.



Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.