Rick Perry was in Bethesda, Maryland, yesterday as part of his tour to influence businesses to move to Big Ole' Texas. Also on a tour was a busload of entrepreneurs traveling throughout Maryland as part of Startup Maryland's Pitch Across Maryland. And as you can imagine, the entrepreneurs promoting Maryland small businesses and the pompous Lone Star governor trying to take those businesses to his state don't quite see eye to eye. The madness and bloodshed that ensued as the two crossed paths outside of a Morton's Steakhouse will go down in political infamy.
Just kidding. It was actually very peaceful, and the two didn't even address one another directly. However, it did spark a discussion about Perry's current television advertisement and strategy to entice businesses to his tax-lenient home state.
But first off, have you seen his bogus commercial?
He's trying to snipe Maryland business, plain and simple.
“If you want to live in a state where you have high taxes and a relatively burdensome regulatory climate, if you want to live in a state where the litigation is relatively easy to get into, then go live in those states,” Perry told the publication BethesdaNow. “But if you want to be free, if you want to live free, free from overtaxation and over litigation, free from overregulation, in a place that’s got a great, skilled workforce, move to Texas.”
In a debate on CNN's Crossfire, Marlyand Governor Martin O' Malley took Perry's tax slams and fought back.
Still, the arrogant Texan at times got the better of O' Malley, interrupting him and smiling behind his empty rhetorical slants.
"We have great companies. Lockheed Martin, Under Armour, Marriott and others in Maryland. And they’re great companies. But the fact of the matter…” O' Malley explained on Crossfire.
But Perry quickly interrupted, “We’re recruiting them to Texas.” In another public forum, he even said, “I mean, we pray for rain in Texas. They tax it in Maryland.”
It's been an ongoing feud between the two governors for a while now, but Wednesday was one of the first times that Maryland business leaders publicly showed their support of their home state and their governor.
“The messaging from Governor Perry is laser focused on the tax environment,” Michael Binko, Startup Maryland co-chair, told the Washington Post. “If businesses are only looking at the tax environment for where they should go to succeed, we think that’s shortsighted as entrepreneurs and probably a recipe for disaster.”
And that's why the bus showed up to cross paths with Perry – to show that there's more to businesses than taxes and that Maryland has plenty of things to offer that exceed the low taxes in Texas.
That's a point O' Malley addressed in an Op-Ed in Tuesday's Post. "Should we slash taxes on the wealthiest Americans — crippling our ability to invest in schools, job training, infrastructure and health care — because we believe that even lower taxes for our wealthiest will magically lead to jobs and robust economic growth? Or should we make tough choices together that provide the resources to invest in schools, bolster growing industries and create quality middle-class jobs?"
“We brought the bus out here just so we could educate him on another view of Maryland and what it offers,” Startup Maryland co-chair Julie Lenzer Kirk said in the Post article.
Binko said that while Startup Maryland offered to hear Perry out on his pitch of Texas and spoke to his press team, he denied.
Though the encounter was tame and otherwise uninteresting, it shows great camaraderie in the Maryland startup ecosystem, taking a stand against the villainous Perry. The small businesses, and big businesses hopefully, too, are seeing past the Texan's smoke and mirrors and expressing their allegiance to their home state. And yes, though taxes may be higher, Maryland has been fostering all-around economic growth with capital investment initiatives, better educational funding and higher median wages. Don't expect any Maryland businesses to head down south anytime soon. Perry's campaign, much like his run for a Republican nomination, is going to fall flat and fail. Why? Because it's a load of crap, and Maryland businesses are showing they can see right through it.
