CEO-turned-Gov. Rick Scott says he’s listening to the employees
Uncategorized — posted by aaron deslatte on May, 21 2011 10:53 AM
Discuss This: Comments(28) | Add to del.icio.us | Digg it
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott says he is weighing public input carefully, even though most of the citizens contacting his office in recent weeks appear diametrically opposed to the “business plan” he and conservative Republican lawmakers are implementing for the state.
In the week after session, 1,683 people called and 12,107 emailed Scott’s office to voice concerns on a litany of issues. More than half urged the veto of an elections bill that reduces the number of early-voting days and makes it harder for third-party groups to register voters, a bill Scott signed Thursday. Those calling about the budget primarily opposed cuts to education, corrections and juvenile justice.
“Callers share concerns that the education budget has been cut in previous years and the schools cannot provide a quality education for Florida’s students on a diminished budget,” the governor’s Office of Citizen Services summarized.
Callers were also “primarily in opposition to privatizing the state prison system,” and opposed to the insurance rate-hiking legislation Scott also signed last week.
Scott has until June 1 to sign the budget – which privatizes facilities housing 16,000 inmates in South Florida and cuts $1.35 billion from public classrooms – and has suggested he might veto some college and university construction projects.
Now, calls and emails to the governor are not a statistically valid sample of Florida’s population. Many are encouraged by unions and advocacy groups that want to sway him one way or another. But it is striking that so few people are taking the time to voice support for Scott and GOP lawmakers.
The only issue that generated a number of supportive emails was use of the controversial E-Verify system to check residency status of workers – and that didn’t pass. Of the 45 people who called or wrote about it, all but four backed Scott.
The governor did seem genuinely impressed by the comments.
“I understand there’s people that like things and don’t like things,” Scott said. “It’s really no different than in business. Because in business everyone doesn’t agree with everything you do. All your employees won’t say, ‘Oh yeah, I think you should exactly do this instead of that.’”
