Scott tries a second time with scaled-down pilot project

Candidate Rick Scott promised "to force the bureaucrats in Tallahassee to justify every tax dollar they spend."

One way to do that, he said, was to use "accountability budgeting."

It's the very first step in the governor's seven-step campaign plan he said would yield 700,000 jobs in seven years.

What is it?

Scott's plan said he would make state agencies set annual goals for every dollar they spent, measure their performance against those goals — then hold them accountable for their outcomes.
His first budget as governor, released on Feb. 7, 2011, put those words onto paper. (Here's the proposed implementing legislation for that budget.) It asked agencies to suggest performance measures, and laid out carrot and stick responses for agencies' success or failure.

But the governor's budget recommendations had to be approved by the Legislature. So while Scott's first budget made progress on instituting his form of "accountability budgeting," we waited to see how legislators would respond and rated the promise In the Works. (He also proposed a biennial budget, a promise we're tracking separately.)

What happened?

As the Governor's Office put it, "the Legislature did not have an interest in implementing this proposal."

Still, the governor's at it again for fiscal year 2012-13.

On Dec. 7, 2011, Scott proposed an accountability budget for three state agencies as a pilot. If it's successful, the governor plans to eventually expand the approach to all agencies, the Governor's Office told PolitiFact Florida in a written response to our request for an update.

Scott chose agencies that "have experience tracking agency service progress":

• Department of Revenue

• Department of Law Enforcement

• Office of Financial Regulation within the Department of Financial Services

Scott's campaign promise was to implement accountability budgeting for each state agency, not just three. Still, in the face of last year's unsupportive Legislature, he's trying a more modest proposal he can expand over time. That's a common sense approach to implementing an agenda, and enough for us to keep this promise In the Works.