CHAMBER PRESIDENT: LEGISLATURE DISAPPOINTED
WEST PALM BEACH — The Feb. 14 Parkland high school killings were among a series of events that distracted from business priorities, reduced the number of bills passed and hurt the Florida Chamber’s efforts to bolster the state’s competitiveness, according to Chamber President & CEO Mark Wilson, speaking at a Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches breakfast Tuesday.
Sex scandals also steered away attention, including the resignation of Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, and Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Atlantis.
“We normally pass 30 bills a year. This year we had eight,” he said.
As he and Florida Chamber Chair Bob Grammig put it in a recently published legislative summary: “With only weeks remaining in the 60-day session, tragedy occurred, and rightfully so, lawmakers took steps to pass school safety measures.
“However, on the whole, lawmakers ultimately made it a bit more expensive for families and small businesses and a little less competitive for Florida job creators.”
The Florida Chamber aims to lower the cost of living, reduce the cost of doing business and making the right long-term investments in education and infrastructure, Wilson said.
But left unfinished this year were efforts to stabilize home and car insurance markets, reduce workers’ compensation rates and lay legal groundwork for autonomous vehicles, he said.
Asked for his sense of whether Parkland-inspired public safety issues will affect Florida elections in November, Wilson said that, as someone who speaks frequently around the state, he noticed that the farther away he is from Parkland, the less the issue comes up.
Legislation spearheaded by Gov. Rick Scott made Florida a national model, he asserted. That legislation raised the minimum age to buy rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21 and designated $400 million for mental health and school safety programs.
The chamber is focused on developing a strategic growth plan, called Florida 2030, Wilson said.
The state, which has nearly 21 million residents, will add another 5 million by 2030, he said.
The unemployment rate has remained low and stable at 3.9 percent, with 178,400 jobs created last year and more people coming back into the workforce.
More than one of every 14 jobs created in the U.S. were in Florida, he said.
But the state has to fight to stay competitive, he said. The Wall Street Journal editorialized seven times in the past year about the state’s lawsuit climate contributing to high rates for home and auto insurance, he said.
“When companies are thinking about moving here and The Wall Street Journal is telling them we have the worst lawsuit climate in the United States and the Legislature won’t do anything about it,” it doesn’t help efforts to attract business, he said.