New Report Raises More Questions for Enterprise Florida

BRADENTON – A study by Good Jobs First, a non-profit, non-partisan research center founded in 1998 and based in Washington, DC, has raised more questions about Enterprise Florida, a public/private partnership ostensibly founded to improve economic growth in the state.

The study looked at eight states with public-private partnerships for economic development and determined they all shared similar problems when it came to accountability.

The report singles out Enterprise Florida and other such partnerships, which it says, "have, by and large, become costly failures characterized by misuse of taxpayer funds, conflicts of interest, excessive executive pay and bonuses, questionable subsidy awards, exaggerated job-creation claims, lack of public disclosure of key records, and resistance to basic oversight."

Integrity Florida, a watchdog group whose research the study cites, says it applauded the study. The groups called Enterprise Florida the state's "most glaring example of cronyism and institutional corruption," accusing it of engaging in pay-to-play.

"It sells seats on its board to corporations for $50,000 and then gives away taxpayer-funded subsidies and vendor contracts to them in return," said the group in a statement responding to the new study.

Click here to read Good Jobs First's full report on the study and its findings.