Editorial: If Gov. Rick Scott only had a heart
An editorial from the Tampa Bay Times

This time four years ago Rick Scott was a stranger to Floridians. Then
he spent $73 million on his first political campaign and rode an angry
voter wave to the Governor's Mansion. For Florida, this has been a
hostile takeover by the former CEO of the nation's largest hospital
chain. In three years Scott has done more harm than any modern governor,
from voting rights to privacy rights, public schools to higher
education, environmental protection to health care. One more legislative
session and a $100 million re-election campaign will not undo the damage.

This is the tin man as governor, a chief executive who shows no
heartfelt connection to the state, appreciation for its values or
compassion for its residents. Duke Energy is charging its electric
customers billions for nuclear plants that were botched or never built.
Homeowners are being pushed out of the state-run Citizens Property
Insurance Corp. and into private insurers with higher premiums and no
track records. Federal flood insurance rates are soaring so high that
many property owners cannot afford the premiums but also cannot sell
their homes. The governor sides with the electric utilities and property
insurers. He criticizes the president rather than fellow Republicans in
Congress for failing to fix the flood insurance fiasco they helped create.

In Scott's Florida, it is harder for citizens to vote and for the
jobless to collect unemployment. It is easier for renters to be evicted
and for borrowers to be charged high interest rates on short-term loans.
It is harder for patients to win claims against doctors who hurt them
and for consumers to get fair treatment from car dealers who deceive
them. It is easier for businesses to avoid paying taxes, building roads
and repairing environmental damage.

Florida's modern political era began in 1954 with the election of Gov.
LeRoy Collins, who skillfully steered the state through the early years
of desegregation and is widely regarded as the state's greatest
governor. Other governors from both political parties had an instinctive
feel for Florida and a passion to help its people. In the 1970s, there
was Reubin Askew. In the 1980s, Bob Graham. In the 1990s, Lawton Chiles.
In the 2000s, Jeb Bush. There were some mediocre and average governors
along the way, but even the least of them demonstrated a deep affection
for this state and its residents.

Scott, who moved to Naples just seven years before running for governor,
treats Florida like another faceless corporate acquisition to be
dismantled and repackaged. Collins created the community college system;
Scott ordered the colleges to create a gimmick, a handful of bachelor's
degrees that can be purchased for $10,000. Askew established the water
management districts and reformed the appointment process for judges;
Scott gutted the former and injected more politics into the latter. Gov.
Bob Martinez pushed ambitious efforts to manage growth and preserve
environmentally sensitive land; Scott decimated both.

The state's refusal to accept billions in federal money illustrates how
this governor ignores the needs of everyday residents. He fought the
federal Affordable Care Act all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and
lost. He stood by as the Legislature turned down $51 billion in federal
money to help cover 1 million uninsured residents, and now he refuses to
reaffirm even his tepid support for taking the money. Tens of thousands
of Floridians are signing up for health coverage in the federal
marketplace in spite of a governor who refuses to help them.

Scott's decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed
rail between Tampa and Orlando was just as callous. At a time when the
region was desperate for more jobs, Scott dismissed federal guarantees
and let the money go to other states. He called high-speed rail
financially risky but then approved far riskier projects to please
powerful state legislators. He embraced the expensive SunRail project in
Central Florida and the creation of Florida Polytechnic University in
Lakeland, a boondoggle that diminished the University of South Florida
and will cost taxpayers dearly for generations.

This governor shows little respect for individual rights. He advocated
drug testing for state employees and welfare recipients; the courts
ruled against him. He pursued a purge of voter rolls that threatened to
disenfranchise minority voters; the county elections supervisors
revolted. He signed into law restrictions on early voting; the public
outcry forced changes.

Scott sides with developers seeking an easier time building their
projects, utilities winning routine approval of higher electric rates
and health insurers that now need no state approval to raise rates. For
homeowners, there is less protection from leaking septic tanks. For
motorists stuck in traffic, the governor's solution is more toll roads.

The state spends less per public school student than when Scott took
office. Parents and teachers have lost faith in a school accountability
system in chaos. College students hear the governor's disdain for a
liberal arts education as he demands results on the cheap. Meanwhile,
Scott eagerly promises hundreds of millions in tax breaks to businesses
pledging to create jobs in future years. His administration approved
nearly 350 job creation deals in his first three years in office, but
only four jobs have been created for every 100 promised.

The son of a truck driver and a store clerk, Scott grew up poor, lived
in public housing for a time and worked his way through law school. He
moved to Florida as the former head of a hospital company that paid a
record fine for Medicare fraud, and he got himself elected to the
state's highest office. Yet the governor who overcame so much adversity
himself shows remarkably little empathy for Floridians and their
everyday challenges as they seek a brighter future for themselves and
their children. Scott's soulless approach to governing is turning the
Sunshine State into a cold-hearted place, where the warm promise of a
fresh start and a fair shake are fading fast.

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