Outsourcing Florida

Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, has worked hard to cut down the size of government in his state, trimming over 10,000 full time positions since he took office. HOw has he been so successful? Some say outsourcing:

Although companies hired directly by the state are using Florida workers, the documents show that subcontractors hired by the companies to help with the workload are sending jobs out of state and, in at least one instance, to India.

The data may not provide a "smoking gun" suggesting Florida work is flooding overseas, state Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell acknowledged.

However, "The gun's sitting there," he said. "I don't know if it's smoking or not."

Legislation that would have answered some of these questions has been blocked by the Republicans:

Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, wants the Department of Management Services to document - and publicize - who is conducting business that would traditionally have been done by state workers and where it is being completed. Legislation that would have required that kind of accounting was killed this year by Republican lawmakers.

Information Campbell has received from state vendors is "telling me that nobody knows what they [vendors] are doing, and there's probably a lot of subcontractors who are outsourcing jobs that should be Floridians' jobs.

"It's also telling me," Campbell added, "that no one's watching the hen house."