Government

Rick Scott Transition Team Delivers 'Big Ideas'

Report suggests consolidating major departments, restructuring 'The Company'
By: Lane Wright | Posted: December 21, 2010 11:28 AM
 RICK SCOTT 61710 CH08

According to the first report released from Gov.-elect Rick Scott's transition teams, Florida is on the road to ruin and needs a course correction -- quick.

His teams estimate the Florida Department of Transportation will have a $50 billion funding gap over the next 20 years. The population of Lee and Collier counties is expected to exceed the available vacant land area. And because of hyper growth over the last several decades, Florida is now facing an infrastructure deficit and the state's natural resources are under pressure.

More than 200 people, ranging from former politicians and department workers to law enforcement officers and business and health care leaders, are helping Scott figure out ways of correcting the state's problems and helping him reach his promised goal to revive Florida's struggling job market.

Monday the governor was briefed on ideas from the Regulatory Reform and Health and Human Services teams. The former was charged with the task of finding ways to reduce government, transforming the regulatory climate in Florida and looking for ways to attract new businesses that will create the 700,000 new jobs. The Health and Human Services team was created to find ways to lower health care costs, transform the delivery of health services and better meet the needs of those most vulnerable in the state.

Here are some of the highlights.

"Big idea #1" Restructure 'The Company'
Scott's team reports that many talk about regulatory reform but few achieve it. The report states that because the "system is too entrenched, and politicians rarely have the patience to understand it or take it on," they take an incremental approach which usually fails to produce results.

"The only way to do it right is to restructure 'the Company,'" it says.

In other words, the team's goal is to redefine Florida's strategic role in the global economy and rebuild its regulatory system accordingly.

"Big idea #2" Alignment
In what is likely the biggest idea so far, the team suggests combining the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Community Affairs. Eventually, other agencies might be integrated into that mammoth department based on how closely their missions line up.

This alignment process would happen over a series of steps and over the course of about two years. The philosophy behind it is that state agencies and departments with commonalities and redundancies would align themselves to reduce inefficiencies.

The teams also suggested a host of other ideas to increase economic growth, by making changes to the the way businesses and industries are regulated, how environmental protection agencies operate, tort reform and insurance.


Comments (3)

Christina
1:24PM DEC 30TH 2010
"Change the culture and leadership in the Department of Environmental Protection and water management districts
and Create jobs and revenues with public lands. Create incentives to maintain and encourage working landscapes"

Translation: break down environmental protection so that large corporations can rob Floridians of our land and heritage. You can expect large bottling companies to drain our natural springs, a screeching hault to Everglades restoration on the state end of things, and less oversight in what gets dumped into our aquifer and rivers. Forget clean drinking water and "stopping the discharge" into the Indian River, Scott will hamstring these initiatives at every opportunity.

Sure! Sounds great. (Didn't we go through all this 80 YEARS AGO??? Scott needs a lesson in Florida history!!!)
Mitch
1:59PM DEC 21ST 2010
Quality recommendations. Especially alignment. Works every day in the private sector.

Especially repealing rules within 60 days that hurt job creation. That would be half of the DBPR and DCA Rules.

And what a novel thought on creating jobs and revenues with public lands! How about instead of just buying land and sitting on it like jabba the hut, the state actualy use the land and properly manage its resources to make money for taxpayers and create jobs, instead of letting the lands be a drain.

I like what I see!
Stan
9:23AM DEC 22ND 2010
Please explain "creating jobs and revenues with public lands." What exactly does this "novel thought" mean?