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Rick Scott is personally reaching out to businesses in other states to try and get them to relocate to Florida. Which, OK, sure, we’re all for, but because Scott is apparently and almost comically incapable of doing anything without controversy, it seems he’s only trying to poach companies from states with Democratic governors. Those governors are understandably irked and claim Scott is spreading misinformation about their states.
Scott’s effort is dubbed, “One-Way Ticket to Florida.” Scott writes letters to corporate big shots explaining why Florida is a better place to do business. The states targeted: Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, California and Minnesota. All five have Democratic governors. Which wouldn’t really sit well with the kind of people who are tired of extreme polarization and seemingly never-ending partisan tiffs.
According to The Tampa Bay Times, those governors’ administration however say that information Scott is trying to feed those corporate big shots is misleading at best, and that the effort is nothing more than a cheap, partisan publicity stunt.
“They thought it was very blatant. They were a little bit offended by it,” Catherine Smith, Connecticut’s commissioner of economic development told the Times her governor’s reaction to the letter. “You get a letter like that, you probably put it in the garbage can.”
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(Scott, by the way, used to call Connecticut home until 2003.)
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and his administration also shot back:
“Poaching is not an economic development strategy,” said Sandra Jones of the Illinois Department of Commerce. “These publicity stunts don’t work. Businesses are choosing Illinois all the time.”Illinois cited a study of business tax burdens released last month by the Anderson Economic Group of Michigan, which rated Florida as having the seventh-highest business tax burden in the U.S. at 13.4 percent. Illinois ranked 20th at 9.6 percent.
(Scott is a native of Illinois.)
So, OK, maybe Scott is stepping on some Democratic toes. Does that really matter if this actually works?
Well, so far, none of the targeted companies has agreed to move to Florida.
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