Who Does Rick Scott Really Work For?

Unemployment

When Florida’s working families were trying to survive the Great Recession, Rick Scott decimated the state’s unemployment system while, at the same time, giving away massive tax cuts for big businesses. The numbers speak for themselves:

• Florida still has employment above the national average.
• The average weekly benefit for unemployment insurance (UI) recipients in Florida ranked 52nd, behind every state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
• The maximum weekly benefit of $275 is lower than all but four other states.
• Only 17% of new UI applicants received benefits, also ranking 52nd.
• The maximum number of weeks of benefits recipients can receive under Scott’s policies is 16 weeks, 50th among the states and Washington, D.C.

Drug testing

Scott signed legislation requiring drug testing for recipients of taxpayer assistance, but the big businesses and political cronies that have received taxpayer funds haven’t taken a single drug test. He claimed that the tests were necessary so taxpayer funds weren’t wasted, yet only 2.6% of recipients tested positive for illegal drugs, significantly lower than the 8.7% of the overall population who had used illegal drugs in the previous month. The courts have repeatedly repudiated Scott’s drug testing policies as unconstitutional. The plan, if it had been fully executed, would have cost taxpayers as much as $187 million, significantly more than would have been saved by the 2.6% of recipients who had tested positive, most of them for marijuana use.

Prison profiteering

Scott supported legislation that would have privatized nearly one-third of Florida’s prisons. The GEO Group, one of the top private prison companies, would have been one of the top beneficiaries of that privatization. Not surprisingly, the GEO Group and other private prison companies have given Scott and the Florida Republican Party $1.5 million to help make sure Scott stays in office. While that legislation was defeated, Scott has awarded the GEO Group 76% of Florida’s private prison contracts, worth $57 million annually. As numerous reports have shown, for-profit prisons have a track record of mistreating prisoners and employees and costing more than state-run prisons.

There’s a lot more that voters need to be reminded about from Scott’s first four years in office, check back to learn more as we get closer to Election Day.

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