Gov. Rick Scott was in Jacksonville Tuesday to congratulate a local transportation and logistics company for creating jobs.
The governor visited SunteckTTS, which opened its Salisbury Road offices on the Southside two years ago.
“Taxes are lower, regulations are less. You’ve got a great workforce. It’s a great place to live," he said. "You know, people go where they want to build a business, where they can live and where they want to solve their customer needs better than anyplace else and that’s what’s happening here.”
Scott praised SunteckTTS for adding 80 jobs in the past year. He also used the visit to make a case for continued funding of Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida — the agencies that promote tourism and job growth.
“We’ve gone from 82 million tourists to almost 113 million tourists in the last six years. We’ve got to keep marketing our state," Scott said. "So, call your House member and your Senate member and let them know that’s important for jobs here. One of every six jobs in our state is tied to tourism. On top of that, we have economic incentives to try and grow our businesses here, recruit companies to move here. We’ve got to continue to fund that.”
According to the Governor’s office, state lawmakers working on next year’s budget have proposed completely eliminating the funding for Enterprise Florida and cutting support for Visit Florida by 67 percent.
Scott will spend the rest of this week crisscrossing the state as part of what he’s calling the “Fighting for Florida’s Future” tour. The 10-city campaign includes another stop in Jacksonville.
The state legislative session ends on Friday.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson: choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews
