FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROPOSAL FOR STATE’S ECONOMIC TRANSITION
AND RECOVERY MADE TO FLORIDA HOUSE

Business Leaders Provide Recommendations for Job Creation to House Councils

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (February 4, 2009) - Several of the state’s top business leaders today offered job creation proposals to the Florida House of Representatives, three weeks after presenting them to the Senate Select Committee on Florida’s Economy.

Panelists delivering recommendations to a joint session of the House’s Economic Development & Community Affairs Policy Council, the General Government Council and the Policy Council were:

• Former House Speaker Allan Bense, now a partner with GAC Contractors and Vice Chairman of Enterprise Florida Inc.
• Marshall Criser III, President of AT&T Florida and Chair of the Florida Chamber of Commerce
• Susan Story, President and CEO of Gulf Power and Chair of The Florida Council of 100.

Their central point was that if Florida’s government were to both continue with and cease certain actions, employers could create jobs and the state could advance toward economic prosperity.

Recommendations included:

• Providing maximum flexibility for the implementation of the class size amendment;
• Emergency lifting of permitting restrictions that obstruct growth;
• Using Florida-based employers to immediately begin $7 billion of "shovel ready" projects
• Increased research and development incentives.

 "What we're talking about is a jump-start for Florida’s economy," Allan Bense explained. "For us, we're looking at a short-term system where we inject the capital, remove the obstructions, and shock this economy into moving forward."

Susan Story emphasized the need for Florida employers and state government to work from one agenda. "We’ve outlined several actionable job creation proposals for the legislature to consider," Story said. The recommendations reflected each sector of job creation and economic development based on six key drivers of the state’s economy: talent, infrastructure, business climate, governance and government systems, innovation and economic development and quality of life.

"Florida’s business leaders have developed a change management system for our economic transition to higher paying jobs and to stimulate growth within our small businesses, the backbone of our economy," said Marshall Criser. "We should measure our performance in all six drivers constantly to make Florida more prosperous and globally competitive."

Bense, Criser and Story stressed a definitive goal: to create higher paying jobs in the short-term while improving Florida’s long-term competitiveness as its population grows by 7 million by 2030.

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