naplesnews.com
By BEN WOLFORD
Posted December 31, 2011 at 6 p.m.

NAPLES — In a cramped Immokalee lunchroom in November, Gov. Rick Scott told a group of teachers he was ready to listen.

He was being sued by their union and, under his leadership, the Legislature had slashed school funding by 8 percent. Scott appeared to be on a mission to smooth relations, one middle school teacher remarked.

It was an example of what political experts called a change in tone, if little change in agenda, for the Republican governor, whose first year in any elected office was marked with heated resistance. Reflecting at year's end, Scott acknowledged the new, receptive him.

"I've listened to Floridians on how they want their money spent, and Florida taxpayers, they want their money spent on education," he said. "Another thing I've learned is you have to continue to make sure that you're focused on issues that are most important to Floridians."

Since taking office, Scott has enjoyed praise from Republicans and business leaders, but he's also endured lawsuits and dwindling public approval. Scott championed an ambitious conservative agenda that was checked by the courts and the Legislature.

"Rough year," said Susan MacManus, an expert on Florida politics at the University of South Florida in Tampa. "He tried to do a lot, and some of it was very popular with the business community but not with the general public. So he's had a rough year."

In February, Scott recommended cutting school funding by about $1.75 billion, but in his second budget proposal in December, he urged the Legislature to add $1 billion. It was a significant reversal in an election-year agenda that otherwise maintained his commitment to low taxes and budget-cutting as the state faces a $2 billion budget shortfall.

The schools investment would come at the expense of hospitals, which would lose $1.8 billion in proposed cuts to state reimbursements for treating the 3.2 million Floridians enrolled in Medicaid.

Spending and taxation decisions are the responsibility of the Legislature, but the governor's proposal will be a starting line for lawmakers when the legislative session begins Jan. 10. And Scott has the power to veto, an option he hinted at using if the Legislature skimps on schools.

Scott, a former health-care executive from Naples, was a virtual unknown but ascended to the governor's mansion in 2010 with a successful television campaign, financed by $70 million of his own money and backed by tea party support.

He promised tax cuts for businesses, 700,000 new jobs in seven years, drug screening for welfare recipients and retirement contributions from public workers.

Florida has slashed thousands of government jobs but created more than 120,000 net jobs thanks to private sector gains. The state unemployment rate has fallen two percentage points since December 2010.

Scott calls job creation his main function and refers to labor statistics released monthly by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity as his "report card."

Scott has vowed to continue trying in the next year to phase out the corporate income tax and to streamline business permitting, measures he says will attract businesses and jobs to the state.

"Everything I ran on, other than immigration reform, we got done," Scott said. "Everything."

Scott campaigned on a promise of bringing a controversial Arizona immigration law to Florida. The House and Senate ultimately scrapped a deal amid disagreements about how strict the law should be.

With each new policy change Scott delivered, he found himself alienated from some voters and interest groups.

Scott is the least popular governor in the country, the polling firm Public Policy Polling said in December. It found that only a quarter of Florida voters it surveyed approve of his performance.

He has been sued no fewer than six times by organizations furious over policies the governor considers successes: required drug testing for welfare recipients, teacher pay based partly on student performance, public worker pension contributions and prison privatization, to name a few.

In August, the Florida Supreme Court derailed Scott's attempt to wield oversight on rules used by state agencies because, the court said, the rules were an extension of legislative power. In all, Scott has selected 1,043 rules to be repealed or modified, a crusade he hasn't abandoned, his office said.

Local Republican legislators commended Scott's freshman performance, which began Jan. 4, 2011, when he was sworn into office. They said he has done what he said he would do. Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, quoted the Scott slogan: "His first year can be summed up in really one sentence: 'promises made, promises kept.'"

"He was not looking at this as a popularity contest," said Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, who supports what the governor has done so far.

Nonetheless, Scott made steps to salvage his image last summer. Initially proud to be a capital outsider, Scott replaced his inexperienced chief of staff with a savvy Tallahassee insider, and he embarked on a statewide tour of newspaper editorial boards, something he refused to do during his campaign.

House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders, D-Key West, called Scott a likable person who had a rough start. In a meeting in Key West two months ago, the two spoke candidly for an hour, "and we kind of hit it off," Saunders said.

They talked about politics and job creation. Saunders said he told Scott to focus less on the "hypothetical jobs" that might come from business incentives and instead to invest in infrastructure projects. Scott, of course, disagreed, but he listened, Saunders said.

"He had a note pad and a pencil," he said.

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