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Who’s really paying for Florida. As Matt Galka tells us, a new report about the state’s biggest companies says its not them, and they’re dodging taxes.

Florida’s Governor makes his agenda pretty clear. “The most important thing you can do to change lives is give someone a job,” said Rick Scott at January’s inauguration.

Scott’s quest for more jobs even took him to Philadelphia earlier this week to try and poach more companies. But a new study says corporations in Florida aren’t paying their fair share.

“Floridians should know that there’s more money coming out of our pockets from the public to the largest corporations in this state, in terms of contracts and subsidies, than those companies pay back on their profits taxes to state governments nationally,” said Dan Krassner with Integrity Florida.

The government watchdog’s new study looked at 17 Fortune 500 corporations in the state. It found that the 13 profitable ones paid, on average, below the state’s tax rate. Of the combined $35 billion the companies made, they paid less than a billion in taxes.

“Well the question is who should pay for Florida? Who should pay for Florida today and our future?” asked Krassner.

The study says that taxpayers provided more than $2 billion dollars to the companies in the form of state contracts. The Governor wants to eliminate the corporate tax rate all together. At the very least, exempt more profits from being taxed.

“It’s a mixed bag, which is like a lot of things, there’s no guarantee that a lower rate produces anymore jobs at all,” said Alan Stonecipher, who helped author the report.

If the proposal goes through, it would mean less money for the state budget. Exempting more corporate income has been scoffed at in the past, but a bill that would do just that has already cleared two committees ahead of next week’s session.