TO THE FLORIDA SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON TOURISM, TRADE, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Good morning Chairman Latvala and Senators of the Committee.  I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you.  I have been at the helm at DEO for more than two years now, and have been serving in the Scott Administration since early 2011.  I have previously appeared before each senator on this committee in confirmation and other hearings, so I trust that each member is familiar with my background.

At DEO, we focus on economic policy and programs—from business expansion, to workforce development, to community infrastructure.  Our goal is to help Florida have the top performing economy in the nation.  I am incredibly grateful to serve at DEO during the tenure of a governor and legislators who are committed to the kind of economic policy that fosters growth—low taxes, sensible regulation, and investments in education and critical infrastructure. 

Economic policy matters.  It makes a difference.  We can see it all across the country as different states, pursuing different policy preferences, have had very different outcomes.

Florida’s policies have led to a resurgent economy and our economic turnaround is leading the nation.  Our private sector has added more than 800,000 jobs over the last four years, and our annual job growth rate has outpaced the nation’s every month for the last three years.  This job growth has occurred across industries and regions.  Job demand is at a record high.  Our unemployment rate has been cut in half, and this has occurred even while our labor force has increased at one of the highest rates in the nation.  Consumer confidence is at a ten-year high.  Tourism continues to set records.  Our population is growing at a steady clip.  We are more competitive for business relocations and expansions.  On just about every measure, Florida’s economic recovery is one of the best in the nation. 

Our goal at DEO is to help keep it that way.  We want to keep it that way because our economic turnaround is not just about the unemployment rate and job counts.  It’s about people’s lives.  The 800,000 jobs our economy has added are a new start for families in this state who were devastated by the recession.  The 289,000 job openings in our state are a promise for the future for those still looking to advance.  Policy matters to people’s lives, and we at the Department have to remember that each and every day.

In recent hearings before this Committee, I have highlighted the work of DEO’s three programmatic divisions, so today I will highlight a few policy items that I think are critically important for DEO and the state to focus on in coming years.

First and foremost, we need to keep lowering the tax burden on our families and businesses.  The economic results we’ve seen over the last few years demonstrate that markets grow when people get to keep and reinvest the fruits of their labor, making their own individual choices with their money.

We need to keep investing in training for our workforce.  To have good policy on this front, we need good inputs.  That means using actual labor market data to inform and drive policy, including workforce training and educational investments and priorities.  To that end, DEO has developed several tools that aggregate and display educational data, job demand, and earnings outcomes.  Reviewing this data tells us that we need to invest more, and need to continue crafting policy around, training a workforce in science, technology, engineering, and math.  These are not the jobs of the future—they are the jobs of today, and if we want to have a globally competitive economy, we need a globally attractive workforce.

Additionally, for those who have fallen out of the workforce, we need to operate a social safety net that is efficient and focuses on getting people back to work.  And we need to ensure that programs like Reemployment Assistance are not drained of limited resources by fraud.  Make no mistake, this is a critical, growing, but largely overlooked problem.  Organized criminal enterprises are, on a vast scale, using stolen identities to defraud public-benefits systems in Florida, including Unemployment Insurance.  In 2014, DEO implemented a state-of-the-art fraud detection program, which uses back-end analytics to identify and prevent fraudulent claims.  The results are alarming.  Since its inception, this program has identified approximately 97,000 fraudulent claims.  Had full benefits been paid on these claims, $400 million dollars would have been illicitly stolen from the RA program. 

This fraud has many negative effects: it harms those whose identities are stolen, it robs the system of resources meant for hardworking Floridians, it imposes unwarranted costs on employers, and it undermines public confidence in government.  My goal is for DEO to lead the nation in preventing, detecting, and prosecuting this fraud.  We are on our way, but there is more work to do.

Next, we need to market our state’s economic advantages.  I’ve already outlined the incredible economic climate in this state and the results it has fostered.  And, yet, we don’t tell this story in any broad-based way around the country and world.  If we think, for example, that it’s worthwhile to invest in marketing our tourism story, then it’s equally worthwhile to invest in marketing our business story.

We also need to continue promoting international trade through investments in our ports, roadways, and business export assistance programs.  Florida is perfectly positioned for global trade, and engaging in such trade is a key way that small- and medium-sized Florida businesses can grow. 

And last, from a growth management perspective, in big cities and small communities alike, we need to find ways to create vibrant downtowns that will attract businesses and keep our educated students in Florida.

These are just a few of the priorities we are working on at DEO and are eager to continue advancing.  I am grateful to Governor Scott for his continued confidence in me and my team, and to this committee for your time and support of DEO over the last few years.  I am also grateful to the dedicated service of DEO’s many employees and partners, all of whom are helping to keep Florida’s economy growing.

I thank the Committee for considering my confirmation and I welcome any questions you may have.