Scott proposes new state Department of Commerce

In his quest to create 700,000 private-sector jobs, Gov. Rick Scott promised to create a single economic development clearinghouse that would work tirelessly on his top priority.

"We will eliminate overlapping economic development agencies and have one group that will assist local economic development agencies and serve as our statewide recruiting agency," Scott said as part of his plan to create 700,000 jobs in seven years.

At a meeting of Enterprise Florida -- the public-private economic development arm of the state -- Scott suggested creating a state Department of Commerce to work more closely with the governor on job creation.

"We're looking at how we make government work better," Scott said on Jan. 27, 2011.  "One thing I'm going to do -- I'm going to work with the Legislature to do this -- I want to streamline how we do economic development.

"What I want to do is set up a Department of Commerce. I'm going to have the secretary of that office in my office, two doors from my office. And I want them to be the ones to work with Enterprise Florida, they'll work with OTTED (Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development) and work with the Agency for Workforce Innovation."

In an accompanying press release, Scott said the new commerce department would "consolidate all economic development, workforce training and community development functions currently spread across the government into a single department."

"To grow Florida jobs, we will consolidate our state's economic development programs under one roof and make our efforts more efficient," Scott said in the press release.

Scott's original promise was to eliminate overlapping economic development agencies and to merge those operations into one unit. While he says he is planning to create a commerce department to function as the state's economic development arm -- and he has said he will fold other economic development programs into the new department -- we still need to see how the merger/consolidation plays out.

So for now, we'll rate this promise In the Works.