Florida has been more than welcoming to those seeking to benefit from not having a state income tax. In a recent appearance on Newsmax's Spicer & Co., Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL-26) suggested that Elon Musk's Twitter move their headquarters to Miami-Dade, Florida.
"Everyone is moving to the Free State of #Florida and I want @Twitter to be next," Rep,Gimenez..
🚨📺WATCH @Newsmax:
Everyone is moving to the Free State of #Florida and I want @Twitter to be next! pic.twitter.com/5DYmaw6LDI
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) December 10, 2022
Host Sean Spicer asks Gimenez what the ultimate goal and possible motive of his offer is.
"I'm hoping that Twitter moves to Miami-Dade County," Gimenez answers simply.
"We have a great tech ecosystem, something that I built up while I was the mayor of Miami-Dade County, we have a great, diverse group of people that live here, close to three million people, and better yet, we have diversity of thought. We have Republicans and Democrats and Independents, we're not just of one mindset," Gimenez elaborates.
Gimenez then compares Florida and the Miami-Dade area with Twitter's current headquarters of San Francisco, California.
"I think he [Musk] needs to get out of San Francisco. There's an echo chamber there. Everybody is thinking the same. We don't do that here in Miami-Dade County. That's why it's such a great county, that's why everybody's moving here. That's why everybody's moving to the great state of Florida, the free state of Florida," added Gimenez. "Elon needs to get out of there and come to Miami-Dade. So yeah, I'm serious about it, and hopefully he'll look at it and see what a great tech ecosystem we do have; and we do have talent; and again, what's most important is that we have diversity of thought."
Furthermore, when co-host Lyndsay Keith asks if Gimenez has more to offer, namely in economic benefits, he is quick to say yes.
"We have incentives here in Miami-Dade County that will give tax breaks, we also have incentives from the state of Florida. If you add jobs, it depends on the number of jobs and the salaries and all, and yeah, you can get some tax breaks here. Plus, you have no state income tax here either, so that the employees themselves, they can keep more of their paychecks and keep it in their pockets and not ship it off to a woke state like California where they do all kinds of crazy things. We actually do good things with tax dollars here, when we're led by a good governor, and the proof is in the pudding. We've got something like 800 people moving into the state every single day."
This is not the first time Gimenez has offered a high-profile business to relocate to Florida. In November, he offered Fox News to move from its New York base, even though he knew they would not take up his offer. Perhaps Musk will feel differently.
