The recent Florida Jobs Summit, hosted by Senator Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker-elect Dean Cannon here in Orlando, brought leaders in business, government, education and labor together to focus on ideas to help boost investment, economic growth and job creation in the Sunshine State.
This interactive public forum provided an opportunity for concerned business leaders and citizens from throughout the State of Florida to provide input directly to state legislators as the head into they 2010 Legislative Session. Suggestions for accelerating job creation ranged from short term, such as suspending the increase in Florida's Unemployment Compensation Tax; to the long term, such as developing new, non-tax sources of revenue to invest in development of human capital and infrastructure; to the political, such as a call to defeat the proposed Constitutional Amendment 4 known as Hometown Democracy.
Stakeholder input was also vital to development of Enterprise Florida's (EFI) newly released five year plan "The Roadmap to Florida's Future" In establishing priorities for this plan, Enterprise Florida, our statewide economic development organization, gathered input from citizens and community stakeholders throughout the state over the last year - in both public forums and through an interactive Web site.
The EFI plan includes 24 sets of recommendations to help establish Florida as a leader in the global innovation economy, including strategies for industry cluster development, workforce development, business climate improvement, and expanded global marketing. To view the plan, visit http://www.eflorida.com/roadmap.
