Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he is flying to Connecticut Thursday to drum up interest from Nutmeg State companies to move south.
Scott appeared Thursday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he said he planned to meet Thursday and Friday with Connecticut companies, though he did not name any specific ones.
“Connecticut is a beautiful state and has wonderful people, but your children and your grandchildren, when you have them, are not going to be able to get a job,” Scott told the show’s hosts via video feed. “Businesses understand they have to compete globally. No customer says ‘I’ll pay more for your products or services because you have higher taxes.’ ”
Scott (or his social media team) spent some of Wednesday tweeting at Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s official Twitter account, boasting of Florida’s tax cuts, lack of income tax, job creation and high spot in CEO Magazine’s state business rankings.
Malloy’s account did not respond to the Twitter taunts.
Florida is one of a number of states trying to use Connecticut’s pending tax increases on businesses to lure companies to move their operations, though Scott is the first government official to announce a visit here.
Fairfield’s General Electric, which has expressed the greatest amount of displeasure with the state budget publicly and also stated its intentions to evaluate other headquarters locations, is a major target.
The last time a sitting governor visited Connecticut to try to poach companies was then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2013.
