State: Governor stumping for state economy

GIBSONTON -- On a warm day in a small park, Gov. Jeb Bush pulled on a pair of white rubber boots and stood ankle-deep in brackish water to dump a few small redfish out of a bucket into the Alafia River.

Ostensibly, Bush was wading in the water Thursday to celebrate the release of the 1-millionth redfish into Tampa Bay from a state-run hatchery in Port Manatee, a project aimed at increasing the number of sport fish available for anglers.

But his real purpose was the same one that sent him to make the rounds of television talk shows last week, meet with Northern tourism officials and even show up for the opening of a new Home Depot call center in Riverview: He's trying to rejuvenate the state's fading economy.

Some of his tactics are aimed straight at the layoffs and shutdowns putting thousands of Floridians out of work. Later Thursday afternoon, after hearing a litany of woes about rising unemployment claims around the state, Bush announced "Operation Paycheck," a $30-million program to help displaced workers learn new job skills.

"We've had a pretty bad hit, but now there are signs that things are rebounding," Bush said. "A lot of people are anxious about the future. We need to help give them a sense of confidence about the future by giving them access to jobs and good training."

Bush also said he has asked all state agencies to identify construction projects that can be accelerated to keep people working, such as beach renourishment projects, new school construction and roads.

Other steps he is taking are less direct -- dumping redfish into a river, for instance. Bush pointed out that sport fishing generates an estimated $2.3-billion in retail sales, so anything that attracts more anglers to the state's waterways is a good thing.

An avid angler himself, Bush told the crowd of about 50 fishermen, scientists and state officials gathered by the Alafia that he preferred wading in a river in Gibsonton to staying in Tallahassee, "looking at the budget and getting depressed."

The state's economy already was slowing before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now the prospects are so poor that the governor has predicted cuts totaling at least $1-billion from this year's budget.

He got more bad news Thursday in a teleconference with leaders of the state's 24 regional workforce boards, some of which are overwhelmed by laid-off workers seeking jobs.

In Tampa, Max Selko, executive director of the Hillsborough County Workforce Board, said walk-in traffic at job centers has doubled since Sept. 11. In Orlando, jobless claims have gone up by 250 percent. In Miami-Dade County, about 5,600 people will file for unemployment benefits this week, an all-time high for one week. In Fort Lauderdale, a newspaper-sponsored job fair had to be postponed this week because so few employers had jobs available.

"The cumulative effect of these anecdotal stories paints a bleak picture," Bush said. Yet he said his Council of Economic Advisers is "pretty confident that the fundamentals in Florida are good and that we'll see a return to growth by the second or third quarter of next year."

To promote what little growth is now occurring, Bush spent the morning at the new call center, which will answer every telephone call that customers make to the chain's 103 stores in Florida and south Alabama. About 400 employees work there now, and by February, when the staff reaches its full strength of 1,000, they expect to handle 100,000 calls a day. The starting wage is $10 to $11 an hour.

The Home Depot employees gave the governor a pep rally cheer. Bush said he hoped their upbeat attitude spreads, telling them: "If you bottle some of this enthusiasm, I'd buy some."

Then he went to Williams Park in Gibsonton to help release redfish into the river. The governor joked with the crowd about his boots, which one angler called "Pine Island Nikes." Later he stood on the shore surrounded by reporters and fielded questions while fiddler crabs scurried around his feet.

He said he may present more ideas for stimulating the economy during the upcoming special session of the Legislature, and that he would like to boost the number of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers patrolling the state's waterways to provide greater security for seaports.

-- Staff writer Mark Albright contributed to this story.

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