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The Director of the new Department of Economic Opportunity was a no show today, to answer questions from House Democrats. The legislators want to know why the millions of dollars in tax incentives the state gives businesses aren’t creating as many jobs as expected. Governor Rick Scott is also looking for answers to those questions. As Whitney Ray tells us, Scott is asking the businesses that didn’t deliver to write the state a refund check.

The state has doled out 740 million dollars in tax incentives and cold hard cash to businesses claiming they can create jobs. Over the past 15 years the money has resulted in 86-thousand jobs; or about a third of what the companies promised.

Now Governor Rick Scott wants a refund.

The state is trying to renegotiate with six of the businesses that aren’t living up to their end of the deal, but getting the details is tough because state law keeps those contract secret for two years.

State Senator Nancy Detert has filed a bill to make the deals more transparent.

“Once we sign a contract if it involves any tax incentives or taxpayer dollars, once that contract is signed all that information should be open to the public,” said Detert.

Detert chaired a committee Tuesday trying to find out if the millions of state and federal tax dollars being spent on the 24 regional workforce boards are creating any jobs.

“How many jobs have the workforce boards created?” ask state senator Bill Montford.

The head of the Workforce Florida couldn’t answer the question but promised to get the information to the committee. Workforce Florida takes state and federal money to offer computers and job training to job seekers, but unemployment remains high.

The committee also listened to a presentation from the online job searching company Monster.com about how its technology could help Workforce Florida better match job seekers with employers. Monster is also offering to load the state’s database with the Florida resume’s it’s accumulated.