Governor Rick Scott steps back from jobs pledge

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - In 2010, on CSPAN, Governor Rick Scott said, “Our plan is seven steps to 700-thousand jobs and that plan is on top of what normal growth would be.” Normal growth for that time period is expected to create a million new jobs.

The campaign pledge helped him win the Florida’s governor’s race.

So, for Scott to fulfill his campaign promise, Florida would have to add 1.7 million jobs by the time the governor finished a second term. But economists say that’s nearly impossible.

First of all there are only about a million people on the state’s unemployment rolls. So to find 1.7 million workers, Florida’s population would have to grow.

Still, there’s another problem; determining which jobs Scott created and which are part of the recovery? In August Scott admitted you can’t tell the difference.

The state has seen a net gain of about 70-thousand jobs since Scott took office. He is taking credit for all of them. We asked if he’s backing off of his original plan.

Is this plan different from your campaign promise? he was asked, The governor answered,
"absolutely not."

Company executives from several businesses adding jobs in Florida have given Governor Scott credit for their decisions. By the next election it may not matter to voters how the jobs were created, just whether or not they can get one.

Backing away from the promise makes it easier for the governor to keep score. Now Scott takes credit for every job added since he took office, even if the company coming to Florida began its plans before he was elected.