3:54 A.M.
At every campaign stop, Jeb Bush promises to restore economic growth to 4% a year using the skills he demonstrated as Florida governor. The Times’ Noah Bierman takes a close look at that Bush’s record as economic steward during his tenure in Florida.
Bierman zooms in a project Bush initiated to lure the biotech industry to Florida. The Scripps initiative involved hundreds of millions in state subsidies. But more than a decade later it’s failed to deliver.
Bierman notes it’s the type of project that probably wouldn’t fly in the post-tea party GOP.
“Yet even among incentive plans, this one was unusual. Typically, states build a new highway ramp or offer tax abatement or some other break to lure a company. Bush offered cash, mostly post-Sept. 11 federal stimulus money approved by his brother, then-President George W. Bush. …
Legislators’ easy embrace of the project is a reminder of how much the Republican Party has changed since Bush left the governor’s mansion in January 2007. The rise of the tea party, partly in reaction to the increase in government spending under his brother’s presidency, has created a sizable swath of the GOP electorate that opposes such large-scale subsidies.”
