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A little more than year ago, the office at Tampa Steel and Supply was packed with TV cameramen, reporters, then candidate Rick Scott and several of his advisers. It was the backdrop for Scott's successful run for governor and spotlighted his campaign slogan: "Let's get to work."
Tampa Steel co-owner Bruce Goldman said he didn’t invite the candidate, but was happy to host the event.
“He asked and we said sure come on in,” Goldman said. “I wanted to see what he had to say, what his plans were, what he was intending to do.”
Gov. Scott has been in office only eight months. Some might say that is not enough time to measure what he’s done, but not Goldman.
“One of the biggest things that really upset me and turned me against him was when he turned down the high speed rail and gave all that money back,” Goldman said slowly shaking his head in disbelief. “You know he talked jobs, jobs, jobs and then he took all those jobs away from the construction industry. There would have been so much more work, so much more money coming in from the Tampa Orlando corridor and that just really hurt us.”
It’s not that the small steel supply company thought it would get a big contract with the high-speed rail. But, the company was counting on snagging smaller side jobs according to Tampa Steel general manager Bill Curnutte.
“We’re not going to be supplying the major steel for that, but we’re going to be the ones that small businesses are going to, be the ones supplying the people that need the maintenance on the equipment,” Curnutte said. “You know its trickle down and without that large big project you don’t have that trickle down.”
For the entire story, visit WUSF-FM.
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