Some Ideas for Some New Gov. Scott Websites

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is all about transparency and getting information out into your hands so you can make informed decisions. That's a good thing right, after all who wants to be misinformed?

Right now you can go online and find out what just about any government employee in Florida is compensated, all thanks in part to Gov. Scott. Want to know where big pension bucks are going or what Florida contracts are on hold, find it online.

What about some other things though?

Wouldn't it be great to know how much Florida is spending to lure companies to bring jobs here and how many jobs actually get here. In the real world there is a calculation called return on investment that tracks this. This would be good information to see in a website governor.

How about a website that shows how much Florida spends in legal fees defending those freshly minted laws every year? Maybe then we could see the correlation as to why some legislators want to keep cutting the judicial branch budget. Funds for magnificent judicial palaces are good, funds for judicial rulings are bad. Still it would be nice to know the true cost of what our legislators cost us from a big picture perspective.

How about a website that tracks the 700,000 jobs, by company, by county, and by month that were promised with the "Let's Get to Work!" package.  Florida residents could see first hand how progress is being made when the "...hold me accountable..." part comes up for review rather than just the hold me part.

How about a website that tracks new corporation and limited liability company start-ups versus ones that got administratively dissolved. New business is, after all the life blood of a thriving economy, right? And we've been told "Florida is open for business" right? So, let's see it. This website would show if wins or losses are being achieved. This would be a good churn ratio to look at and it is something that most businesses frequently check. We've also been told "Florida government should be run like a business" so let's see this good business ratio governor.

How about a website that shows the benefits to Floridians for rejecting federal funds for things like keeping elderly and disabled Floridians in nursing homes versus their own homes. This one was $25 million. Seems like we should be getting some kind of discounted sales or property tax since we're burping from excessive federal funds flowing into Florida. Maybe Gov. Scott has worked out a deal and we're going to get a Floridian only credit on our IRS-Form 1040 for keeping grandma in the nursing home. It sure would be nice to see that on a website wouldn't it? That would be a great cost benefit ratio analysis. Hey, that's another business term isn't it?

Finally, how about a website like Corporation Wiki that has those neat graphics that helps you connect the dots. Something like this sure would be helpful and a real cost saver too. Just imagine if something like this was in place for the State Board of Administration of the Florida Retirement System. You wouldn't be hearing about a $10,000 invoice for gathering, binding and delivering records to Sen. Mike Fasano.

Oddly, we're still trying to figure out how a 14 minute mundane afternoon conference call could replace a $10,000 Broadway production of "Documents - The Complete Transparent Package" an Ash Williams production. It would seem something would get lost in translation during the 14 minutes. It wouldn't be designed this way would it?

If there was a website for this then there wouldn't be the hand wringing, paper shuffling, incoherent phumphering and distracting whistling from Gov. Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater when Sen. Fasano asked for help in seeking something that should be transparent.

No sir, if this website were in place these overseers could loudly, proudly, and boldly say in unison, "Good senator, sir, have you looked at the transparent website built for the citizens of Florida to answer your questions?" 

Boy there would be egg on someone's face, huh?

Sadly though these probably won't be the kinds of transparent websites that will be coming anytime soon. There are other websites that need to be built that have a more pressing urgency. There's the website that trumpets the goodness of the budget surplus, oh wait scratch that one too...

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Clearwater Neighborhoods Coalition