Fla. Governor: State Should End Collective Bargaining
Special to CNBC.com
Florida Governor Rick Scott wants to get rid of his state's collective bargaining and start asking government employees to pay 5 percent into their pension plans, he told CNBC in an interview Wednesday.
"I believe collective bargaining hurts the most effective, the hardest working employees so that’s the problem with collective bargaining," Scott said.
"And what you do is you have to pay to someone who doesn’t work as hard the same amount so that’s what I’m focused on in collective bargaining and that’s why I think we ought to get rid of it," he added.
In order for Florida to get rid of its collective bargaining the state constitution would have to be amended, according to Scott.
Scott's plan is to have government employees to pay 5 percent of their compensation into their pension plans.
"I have to be fair to government workers, but taxpayers — they don't have a pension plan —so I'm asking our government workers to pay 5 percent of their compensation."
Scott also told CNBC he is unlikely to accept federal funds of $2.4 billion for a high-speed rail system to run from Tampa to Orlanda. He believes expanding the state's ports would be a better use of that money.
