Sunday on New York AM 970 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) railed against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) for his state’s poor handling of the budget as Cuomo has pushed for bailouts due to the impact of the coronavirus.
Scott, who served two terms as governor of Florida, said he does not think it is “fair” for Florida taxpayers to bail out New York when the state was careless with its money.
“Here’s what I don’t believe is fair: I don’t believe states that watched their money, the taxpayers of those states should be bailing out states like New York who never watched their money,” Scott told host John Catsimatidis. “[I]n the eight years that I was governor, I paid off a third of the state debt. I cut taxes and fees 100 times. And I balanced the budget without borrowing money. Andrew Cuomo did the opposite. He borrowed money constantly. He grew and grew and grew his budget. And now, he wants Florida taxpayers — and a lot of them are people who came down from New York, and they got fed up with the taxes up there. A lot of them have come down to Florida, and he wants them to continue to pay for his excess, and that’s not right.”
Scott added, “We’ve covered 100% of their cost for the coronavirus. We’ve given them either grants or lending over a trillion dollars. That’s actually about what they collect every year in taxes for all of our states together. … I don’t think it’s fair.”
“We have got to figure out how to live within our means,” he continued. “And these states have to do the same thing.”
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