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At last, at last, Gov. Jeb Bush is leveraging his two very best assets to get Florida into the Big Leagues of megabusiness deals.
His political name. And his years as a commercial real estate developer in South Florida.
For a state too accustomed to picking at economic scraps, Gov. Jeb flexing his influential surname is way overdue.
Without the Bush name, it seems doubtful California's Scripps Research Institute would have given any Florida governor the time of day, much less a commitment to create a major biotech facility in Palm Beach County.
Had Bill McBride become governor, can you imagine him flying out to Scripps and persuading the elite research organization to plant its expansion flag in Florida - clearly a biotech laggard by global standards - when it could pick anywhere in the world?
Consider this scenario:
Governor: Knock. Knock.
Scripps: Who's there?
Governor: It's Bill McBride.
Scripps: Nobody's home.
Contrast with this more likely example:
Governor: Knock. Knock.
Scripps: Who's there?
Governor: The president's brother.
Scripps: Where do we sign?
Of course, clinching a Big Deal like the Scripps agreement is not so simple. There's always money involved. In this case, nearly $1-billion in federal funds funneled to this state are behind the $310-million Gov. Jeb has committed to Scripps Florida. Add another $200-million pledged by Palm Beach County and Florida is throwing $510-million to get Scripps to set up shop outside West Palm Beach.
Scripps, in turn, has promised within seven years of its start to employ just 545 people in Florida with an average salary of $58,000 a year.
Given the incentive size, that amounts to an initial $935,780 per Scripps job.
Compare that to the mere $168,000 per job that Alabama agreed to pay - with much criticism for its extravagance - 10 years ago in order to attract a Mercedes-Benz plant to the state.
Not to complain we overpaid. The high price tag for Scripps is apparently the market price for rerouting a top-notch biotech brand to Florida and away from Boston or Baltimore, the East Coast's already established hotbeds for biotech activity.
Let's just say that with government incentives approaching $1-million per job, here's hoping Scripps lives up to its instant reputation as a newcomer that - in the words of Bush administration officials - will transform Florida as much as Disney or NASA did.
State officials citing "conservative business models" say Scripps can help create 6,500 jobs and generate about $1.6-billion in additional income for Floridians over the next 15 years. An additional 40,000 jobs could emerge as biotech and drug companies cluster around Scripps Florida.
One thing's for sure: Gov. Jeb's back in his old groove as a real-estate dealmaker, and he clearly likes the feel of it. He is promising more Big Deals - as long as legislators follow his lead in this week's special session in Tallahassee, don't ask too many hard questions or demand too much accountability.
Scripps could be just the start of big things to come, Bush hints, if the governor-salesman is left unfettered.
It was only a month ago that the talk was of another deal Bush was encouraging. There were reports then that the governor was putting together a package of incentives to pursue a $6.2-billion military satellite communications contract that presumably would benefit Florida corporations - and bring 700 or more jobs to such companies as Raytheon in St. Petersburg and Honeywell in Clearwater.
During this week's special session on the Scripps deal, Bush is asking lawmakers to create a $190-million "megafund" that could be used to provide incentives to help land deals that could include the contract for the Navy's satellite-based system, called the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS. The incentive package would help counter competing proposals by California and other states for the military contract. The state bids are due in November, though the contract won't be awarded until the spring.
There are more Big Deal opportunities, Bush suggests, if the right incentives can be assembled.
The governor recently said officials of the giant Boeing aircraft manufacturer were impressed during a site visit to an aviation facility in Jacksonville. More than a dozen states are competing for a plant where Boeing will assemble its proposed 7E7, a next-generation passenger jet.
Florida, considered a second-tier contender in the Boeing race, has little chance of cutting a deal without incentives. Lots of them. Boeing reportedly can already choose from a $500-million loan by the Kansas legislature, $350-million in cash and loans financed by taxpayers in Tulsa, Okla., $30-million from the Texas governor and $3.2-billion worth of industry tax breaks in Washington state. A final assembly location is expected to be announced by the end of the year.
What are the odds Florida can nail Scripps, the military satellite contract and the Boeing plant? Pretty small. But Scripps - the most significant of the three - looks pretty solid.
And don't count Florida out of the running quite yet for some other Big Deals. The 2004 presidential election is warming up fast. Florida is well-positioned to curry favor from an administration eager to secure votes in the state that decided the nation's Bush-Gore contest in 2000.
If Bush the governor - or Bush the president - can open more Big Deal doors for Florida, let the selling begin. (But remember to read the fine print.)
- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or 727 893-8405.