Gov. Rick Scott led a trade delegation from Rugao, China on a tour of Bing Energys new Tallahassee headquarters Friday, in another installment of his efforts to increase Floridas international profile as a pro-business state.
Scott has held trade talks with foreign ministers and ambassadors from Japan, Britain and Kenya and visited Panama on a trade mission in his first five months in office. The theme of each of the talks has been that increased trade will lead to more jobs in Florida.
Bing Energy, a renewable energy company that manufactures state-of-the-art fuel cells, announced its decision in February to relocate its corporate headquarters to Tallahassee, and said it intended to expand operations in China.
Dean Minardi, chief financial officer for Bing Energy, said that Rugao, a city of 1.45 million people 75 miles north of Shanghai, is the location of their Chinese expansion.
We came to Tallahassee and we will soon be operating in Rugao, because they understand that private businesses generate jobs; jobs generate personal wealth; taxes do the opposite, Minardi said.
The new opportunity for a renewable energy company doing business in the two largest energy-consuming nations has bent Scotts imagination toward a technological transformation of the local and state economy that includes a boom of job creation.
This is a city (Tallahassee) that should have a lot of job creation, a lot of private job creation. Its exciting the joint venture they have in Rugao City, Scott said. Its sort of like what Intel brought to the computer, Bing is going to bring to energy. So this is going to be a great opportunity, he added.
Huijan Chen, vice mayor of the Nantong Municipal Peoples' Government in Rugao's province, agreed.
"It will bring wealth to both countries and to both cities, and job opportunities," Chen said through a translator.
When Bing Energy came to Tallahassee it received $1.9 million in economic incentives from the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development that were lined up in October, before Scott was elected. The Leon County Commission and the City of Tallahassee will give a 10 percent match as part of the deal, in which the company must create 244 jobs over the next seven years. The jobs are projected to have an average wage of $41,655.
Although the deal was in place before Scott took office, Minardi said in February that the final decision to come to Tallahassee was not made until Scott unveiled his plan to phase out Floridas corporate income tax.
Legislators largely ignored Scotts business tax cut until the final weeks of the legislative session, but slipped in an increase of the exemption that will provide $30 million in business tax breaks, far short of the $2.4 billion cut over two years and an eventual elimination of the corporate income tax Scott had requested.
Minardi said Friday his faith was not shaken that Scott will ultimately make good on his plan to phase out the business income tax.
We had no expectations of getting it done overnight. Were still very bullish, Minardi said.
Scott backed up his pledge.
He knows I am committed to getting this done, Scott said, adding that he has six more legislative sessions to meet his goal of zeroing out the tax in seven years.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
