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The Business of Being Governor
Interview with Florida's Gov. Rick Scott
Gov. Rick Scott met with FLORIDA TREND last month. Following are quotes from the interview.
On social service agencies like the Department of Children and Families:
We need to have safety nets. There's people that need services at times, and I want to do the best job we can do while people need those services. But as a general rule, I want to create an environment where we do such a good job at creating jobs that the need for state services goes down. And the only way you do it is help people get a job.
On jobs and work:
The way I think about life is how I've done my priorities. One is education, because I know you've got to get a great education or you won't get very far in life. Two, you've got to get a job. ... That's what changed my life. I didn't start out with great jobs. I worked as an 85-cent-an-hour fry cook, I delivered papers for a penny a paper, I cleaned telephone booths, I worked at amusement parks, I cleaned latrines ... and worked at the mess deck when I was in the Navy. I had all sorts of jobs. They're all important jobs. And I respect everybody that does any job in this state.
On reassuring those concerned about the environment that development interests won't run roughshod:
I like fishing, I like hunting, I like being outside, so I clearly care, if anybody looks at my background, I clearly care about those issues. ... I feel very comfortable that the people I'm putting in place care about this state, clearly care about the environment.
On Florida Forever:
I care about making sure that we take care of our environment and whether that's the private sector taking care of our environment or the state taking care or the counties taking care of our environment. ... So it's something that we'll focus on and then my job is partially to allocate how we spend those dollars.
On immigration and Florida's responsibility to the children of immigrants:
Step one, the federal government needs to make sure we have secure borders and we as citizens are comfortable that our borders are secure. Second, we need to have a policy that ... is built on legal immigration, that people can come into our country and that we decide who comes into our country. Then I think we also need to make sure that the people coming in are people who can get jobs here because our employers are not going to grow if we don't have the right jobs or the right people for the jobs. With regard to children, they are citizens of our country.
On Citizens and the state's property insurance market:
I put out a plan in the campaign ... to move Citizens to an insurer of last resort. It's one of the things we'll be working through this session, to make sure that we start moving Citizens in that direction and attract private companies to come back here. We have to have a regulatory environment that they feel comfortable with, that they're going to get treated fairly, and we've got to make sure that they're viable, financially viable.
On the governor's job:
This is the best job. It's a ball.
