Deslatte: Florida incentive programs receive mixed report card
Aaron Deslatte's January 3rd column covered the release of a report during the past week by the Florida Office of Economic & Demographic Research covering an assessment of three years' worth of incentives. The analysis captures the last 18 months of Governor Crist's tenure and the the first 18 months of Governor Scott's administration.
Observations:
1. Governor Scott's pursuit of smaller deals has added to the volume of deals. Smart strategy.
2. The EDR's analysis is written in dense economic-ese that will render it unapproachable to the casual observer and ultimately useless except for the political communication distortion machines.
3. The "Key Assumptions" of the study are, well, the key. Read the report for yourself (start by examining the assumptions listed on pages 25 and 26) and test your own tolerance for the make-believe assumptions necessary to generate the study's results. Download it here.
