Governor Rick Scott pitches 'business-friendly' Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Fresh off huge legislative victories, and in his element among entrepreneurs, Governor Rick Scott greeted trade delegates from China Friday.

Using a translator, the delegates thanked Scott and praised a new partnership with Bing Energy a company creating jobs in Florida and China.

“It will bring wealth to both countries, and those countries, and the city, and to the people," a translator said.

Bing Energy moved to Florida, enticed partly by Scott's promise to lower taxes. Lawmakers voted for a 30 million dollar corporate tax cut during the Legislative Session, although the governor wanted more.

Bing’s CFO says it’s a good start.

"We have no expectation of it disappearing overnight. He’s still got seven more sessions, to get that done," said Bing Energy CFO Dean Minardi.

In his first session Scott lifted dozens of regulations and secured 200 million dollars in property tax cuts.

And those accomplishments are being sent into cyber-space by the Republican Party of Florida. They launched a website with a video of Governor Scott, boasting of his legislative victories and promising more to come.

"In the coming months I’ll begin putting these first pieces of my 7,7,7 plan into action and together we can make the phrase 'let's get to work' a reality,” said the governor.

That phrase doesn’t mean much to workers from the DeSoto Juvenile Correctional Facility. The budget closes the detention center.

"If this closes over 400 hundred people will be without a job. And it’s not like there is any place else we can go,” said teacher Jan Jackson.

Workers crowded the governor’s office Friday to ask Scott to save their jobs.
The group of 30 teachers, correctional officers and community leaders meet with a representative from the governor’s office Friday afternoon. They’re hoping Scott will hear their cries and spare their jobs.