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A spending plan full of spending cuts and tax breaks is awaiting the governor’s approval. The state legislature didn’t give Governor Rick Scott his entire jobs budget, but many are still hopeful the new budget will spur economic growth. But as Whitney Ray tells us, before jobs are created… jobs will be eliminated.

In the waning hours of the 2011 legislative session, state lawmakers had a hard time pinpointing the jobs. Lawmakers passed a budget that cuts taxes by three-hundred million dollars. Governor Rick Scott had asked for two billion.

Rob Weissert with Florida TaxWatch says even though the cuts were smaller, they will have an impact.

“A number of businesses won’t be paying corporate income tax, again they’ll have more money in their pocket to invest in their business which will create jobs in Florida,” said Weissert.

But before this budget creates any economic growth there’s going to be some pain. 45-hundred state positions will be eliminated and state workers will be forced to contribute three percent of their salaries to their retirement plans.

The Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy says businesses will suffer once the 650-thousand state workers start seeing smaller pay checks.

“That’s more than a billion dollars a year that has been spend at the grocery stores, the convenient store to buy clothes that will no longer be available to be spent,” said Alan Stonecipher, a spokesman with the center.

But Dr. Bob McClure at the James Madison Institute say the message being sent is more important than the lost sales.

“I think both the legislature and the governor understand that there are more things that can be done in tax policy to create jobs, but more importantly what it does is it says to everyone across the country Florida is ready to do business,” said McClure.

The state jobs will be eliminated in July, but it’s still unclear when any jobs created by the budget cuts will emerge. Lowering taxes and cutting state spending are key components of the governor’s plan to create 700-thousand jobs in seven years, but it will likely be a year before there’s a mechanism in place to keep track of the job creation.