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Governor Rick Scott is backing away from a campaign pledge that helped him squeak out a win last November. Scott promised to create 700-thousand jobs in seven years. He said the jobs would be on top of the million created by the natural rebound of the economy. That means, by 2018, Florida would have 1.7 million more jobs. The governor now says the number is 700-thousand even with help from the economic recovery and as Whitney Ray tells us, Scott doesn’t consider changing the math as breaking a campaign promise.

In 2010, this campaign pledge help Rick Scott win Florida’s governor’s race.

“Our plan is seven steps to 700-thousand jobs and that plan is on top of what normal growth would be,” said Scott in a gubernatorial debate in October of 2010.

Normal growth for that time period is expected to create a million new jobs. So for Scott to fulfill his campaign promise, Florida would have to add 1.7 million jobs by the time the governor finished a second term. But economists say that’s nearly impossible.

First of all there are only about a million people on the state’s unemployment rolls. So to find 1.7 million workers, Florida’s population would have to grow. Still there’s another problem; determining which jobs Scott created and which are part of the recovery? In August Scott admitted you can’t tell the difference.

Reporter: How do you determine which ones are on top of the natural economic growth?
Scott: you can’t, you can’t.

The state has seen a net gain of about 70-thousand jobs since Scott took office. He is taking credit for all of them. We asked if he’s backing off of his original plan.

Reporter: Is this plan different from your campaign promise?
Scott: Absolutely not.

Company executives from several businesses adding jobs in Florida have given Scott credit for their decisions. By the next election it may not matter to voters how the jobs were created, just whether or not they can get one.

Backing away from the promise makes it easier for the governor to keep score. Now Scott takes credit for every job added since he took office, even if the company coming to Florida began its plans before he was elected.