Mitch Perry
In a survey of U.S. CEOs choice of best and worst states for business last year, Florida ranked second, finishing just behind Texas.
“We’ve learned from Texas how to tell our story better and it helps that we’ve cut taxes 25 times, by about $400 million,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott told Chief Executive Magazine. “When companies like Hertz, Amazon, Deutsche Bank and Verizon add jobs here, it causes more people to look at us. Business is comfortable that we’ll keep the tax base low and improve our workforce.”
The state grades so highly among CEOs for its “reasonable rules and regulations and a positive attitude towards business,” says one CEO to Chief Executive, speaking about Florida, Arizona and Texas.
Conversely, California was graded the worst in the country by the magazine, for the 10th year in a row.
Michael Mercier says that’s just a fact.
He’s the president of technology and logistics operation at Jagged Peak, an e-commerce software and services company with offices in Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Last Thursday, Mercier introduced Governor Scott at an appearance at the company’s St. Pete warehouse off Gandy Boulevard, where he praised Jagged Peak for creating jobs in Florida – 158 overall, and 35 in the past four years.
Mercier talked about his background in California, which he jokingly called “the dark side.”
Afterwards, Mercier opened up about why he thinks Florida is a better place for a company like his than in his former state.
“Culturally it’s a huge change,” he says of the difference between the two states. “But I’d say a from a business standpoint it’s really been a blessing because California’s just harsh.”
Mercier was a lifelong Californian who attended Cal State-Long Beach and then received his graduate degree in business administration at USC. He headed Towne AllPoints Communications in Santa Ana, California, which collaborated with Jagged Peak in 2007.
“I really think there’s a hostility to business,” he says of the Golden State. “Unless you’re a Silicon Valley company or green energy company, the state doesn’t really want to have too much to do with you so everybody else, smaller business in particular, are bearing the burden of all of that because we’re not staffed to come up with every change that happens almost daily or the mounds and mounds of paper work that come with trying to get something done.”
