Florida Governor Ron DeSantis disheartened Twitter from moving its headquarters to the Sunshine State following Elon Musk’s privatization of the social media platform, according to Jacksonville outlet News4JAX.
DeSantis said in a press conference on Monday that due to the state’s investment in Twitter, the tech giant will bring between $15 and $20 million in profit to the state when Musk officially becomes the owner of the platform.
However, DeSantis said actually moving Twitter’s headquarters to Florida would result in a higher cost of living for residents of the Sunshine State.
“In Florida, I think we’ve done very well, particularly over the last few years, attracting businesses that are producing things,” DeSantis said. “Importing some tech company from San Francisco has not been high on our list. I think that what happens is they’ll tend to come in, they drive up the cost of living for everybody else. Yeah, they enjoy our lower taxes but you know, what is what are they really providing?”
Twitter accepted Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $43 billion outright on April 25. Since then, Musk has been receiving calls from lawmakers and constituents of different states encouraging him to move Twitter’s headquarters from San Francisco to Florida.
Some Florida lawmakers and residents have encouraged Musk to relocate to Florida.
“Join me in inviting @elonmusk to move @Twitter to the freest state in the nation! Florida would benefit the company as a whole — we have no state
income tax and the perfect business climate. It’s time to book a one way (SIC) ticket,” Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said in a tweet.
“This is a guy that has succeeded in almost every enterprise he’s ever done. And so he will, our state will benefit, we will get, I think $15, $20 million profit from our pension fund. But then he will make that company more valuable, I have no doubt about it,” DeSantis said at the news conference.
Texas congressman Tan Parker told Fox News that he would “roll out the red carpet” for Musk if he moved Twitter’s headquarters to Florida. Texas is home to many of Musk’s companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company.
