Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott explained his opposition to state and local bailouts, explaining that taxpayers should not be held responsible for how much other states have spent.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller, Scott also went after New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo for continuing to borrow money and asking for help from the federal government, adding that when he was Governor of Florida that he did not receive any help from the federal government and left his position as Governor of Florida with less debt than Cuomo.
“Well, first off, I was a governor. No one bailed me out. It’s not the responsibility of the federal government to bail out states. Why would a Florida taxpayer be responsible for the excesses in New York or Illinois or California, New Jersey or Pennsylvania?,” Scott told the Caller.
“Cuomo and I got elected as governor at the exact same time. In his time as governor what’d he do? He didn’t balance its budget. He constantly borrowed more money. This idea that states have to balance their budgets. That’s not true at all. They just borrow more money. The difference between the two of us is, one, I did everything I could to hold spending accountable. It’s a pain in the rear. It’s easy to say, sure, whatever you want in the legislature I’ll give to you. But what’d I do, I paid off a third of the state tax. Who does that help? It helps every taxpayer, my state, their kids and grandkids. I’ve got kids. And I have grandkids. I don’t want them or any other kids to pay for expenses while it’s my responsibility,” Scott said.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) talks to reporters as he arrives for a meeting with GOP Senators in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, May 19, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Number two is Cuomo’s budget is almost twice mine. I passed him when I was governor and so by the time I left, we had 2.5 million more people. My budget was, I think my last year around eighty-seven billion, his was close to a hundred and seventy billion, almost double. He raised spending per person, every person, by five hundred and seventy thousand. Think about that. He’s raising the cost astronomically,” Scott continued in his conversation with the Caller.
“Look at his debt. I left the state with I think about twenty-seven billion dollars of debt. I think he’s a hundred and forty-eight billion dollars. You look at the pension plans of places like Illinois, in California and New Jersey, places like that. They’re very poorly funded and it’s not like they’re not taxing people enough. These places have the highest taxes in the country. So the people got fed up and they move to places like Florida and now they’re afraid they can’t tax their own citizens more. So they’re trying to tax my citizens more,” he went on.
When asked about his feud with Cuomo over the years, Scott says he believes Cuomo is mad he recruited companies to move from New York to Florida. This comes as Scott also released a video on May 5 criticizing Cuomo for claiming he bails out Florida every year. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Rick Scott To Release Video Going After Gov. Andrew Cuomo For Saying New York Bails Out Florida)
In the video, first obtained by the Caller, there are select clips of Scott and Cuomo from roughly the past month. Scott discusses his relationship with Cuomo, saying they both started as governors at the same time, but that Cuomo always held a “grudge” due to his allegedly successful recruitment efforts convincing New York businesses to move to Florida.
“I guess he’s always been mad because that’s what I did as governor is I went to other states and recruited companies. And so he was always mad at me because I recruited companies and they came. So I went to California. I went to Illinois. I went to New York. I went to Pennsylvania and went to Connecticut and what would happen is I’d go to these places and I would explain, you should move to Florida because you’re competing probably globally. No one’s going to pay extra money because you pay these ridiculous taxes in New York,” Scott told the Daily Caller. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Rick Scott To Introduce Legislation To Get Peace Corps Out Of China)
“Cuomo’s always mad at me. He’s always been mad at me because I recruited his companies. And then what happens is people left. And then we passed him as the third biggest state. So he’s always had a chip on his shoulder about the fact that we won. He lost. It’s as simple as that, Scott continued.
Scott concluded by saying he hopes Democrats will join him in opposing state and local bailouts.