Gov. Rick Scott: Conn.'s Heavily Taxed Firms Should Head to Fla.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott offered an open invitation Thursday for Connecticut businesses to pack up and head south, saying the northern state's government is "ruining the business climate."

"Connecticut is a beautiful state [with] wonderful people," Scott told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "But your children and your grandchildren when you have them are not going to be able to get a job, because they're ruining the business climate in Connecticut."

Meanwhile, in Florida, 879,000 jobs have been added in a little over four years because of lower rates and regulations, said Scott.

Companies including General Electric have been threatening to leave Connecticut after the state Legislature approved a budget on June 3 that threatened to raise business taxes.

This week, Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy proposed stopping the planned levies and enacting spending cuts in their place, reports Bloomberg News.

According to Ben Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, Connecticut has a $116 million budget deficit for the fiscal year ending on June 30 and will use reserves to close the gap.

However, the initial spending plan called for higher taxes not only for businesses, but for the state's wealthiest as well.

Scott said businesses understand that they need to compete globally, but no customers want to pay more for products or services because companies are paying higher taxes or deal with unnecessary regulations.

"So it's education, it's workforce, it's income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, attitude," that drive businesses to relocate, he said. "Does your government at the state level, at the local level, do they help your business, do they help you attracts the right employees? We're doing all those things in Florida."

Last year, a quarter-million people moved to Florida, said Scott, noting there are almost 300,000 job openings in his state.

"Our workforce is growing," he told the show, noting Florida is in second place in  aerospace and aviation businesses and third in technology.

Scott said he will be in Connecticut on Thursday and Friday to meet with businesses and market his state, and "some of them that are competing globally know that Florida will be a better place to compete."

Further, said Scott, everything needed to do business in Florida is lower, from income, sales and property taxes to the overall cost of living.

"We figured out how to make government efficient here," he said. "I'm continuing to do it every year. I just finished my budget. We're continuing to control the size of government here."

The one question Scott would not answer, though, is which Republican presidential candidate impresses him most, and he would not pick between his state's representation in the upcoming election, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio.

"I like all the Republican candidates," he joked. "How is that?"
 
Watch the video here.

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