Florida Gov. Rick Scott will be coming to Connecticut soon to try and lure companies south to his state, but Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy isn’t worried.
“Every governor competes in every state,” Malloy said. “We all do it. We’ve brought jobs here from New York. We’ve brought them from Massachusetts. We’ve brought them from New Jersey. We’ve brought them actually from Florida.”
Scott and Enterprise Florida, Inc. — a public-private partnership between Florida’s business and government leaders that is the principal economic development organization for the state of Florida — began running radio ads on Monday to let businesses know they’re welcome in Florida.
“Connecticut recently increased taxes . . . again . . . this time, by over $1 billion. Florida has no state income tax and has cut taxes more than 40 times over the last 4 years. Unlike Connecticut, Florida is a right-to-work state with no estate or gift tax. If you are a business that wants to pay less taxes so you can earn more money, come to Florida,” an announcer says.
Malloy, who welcomed Texas Gov. Rick Perry when he came to Connecticut to poach gun manufacturers, said everybody does this and “we think Connecticut is a pretty darn good state.”
The Florida ad comes after a full-page Wall Street Journal ad from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, which told GE, Aetna, and Travelers that “We offer our support in the wake of Connecticut’s looming tax increases, because friends don’t let friends pay higher taxes.”
Both ads refer to the two-year, $40.3 billion budget the General Assembly passed on June 3. The General Assembly plans to return later this month to debate bills implementing the state budget.
In the meantime, Malloy proposed some changes in an effort to soften a tax package that had caused a loud and very public outcry from the business community.
Democratic legislative leaders have said they would take the proposal under advisement as they craft the budget bills. The House Democratic caucus is expected to meet later today to discuss what changes they would like to see as part of the final package.
The budget barely passed the House on a 73-70 vote, so the changes will need to be made in order to get a majority of lawmakers on board.
