An investigation into Florida incentives Sunday, April 10, 2005 This morning's St. Petersburg TImes carries an important series of articles investigating Florida's use of incentives for economic development. The series is unusual for the depth of the reporting on individual deals. Among the key findings: Incentives are big business inFlorida: in 2004-05 Florida's economic development efforts could cost state government more than $900-million. The total cost of federal, state and local incentives is hard to track because Florida does not keep a combined list of costs. The Legislature rarely checks to see if incentives are paying off. More than half the companies that responded to a recent survbey said they probably would have located or expanded in Florida without the incentives. Governor Bush disputes the finding's of the newspaper's investigation. The articles in the series include: Risky business An up-and-down history Audits find oversight flaws Governor disputes Times' findings posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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