00:03:07.740That's why, you know, like we mentioned, for four years in a row, decrease the general fund within the state of Maryland, control your spend, and actually invest in industries that are going to help you to grow.
00:03:15.860So while we've made movements on those things, there is no doubt there's still more that needs to get done.
00:03:22.060And there's a measure of urgency that we've got to move at from our state that, you know, I, you know, for anyone who wants to sit there and say, oh, no, they have it all figured out or any of these people have it all figured out.
00:03:31.440The answer is no, we don't, because as long as you're dealing with some of those data points, it means we still got work to do.
00:03:39.720You know, listen, I mean, winning with getting businesses to come down, winning with a lot of different things, winning with businesses, winning with people that are here who are staying,
00:03:48.660winning with, you know, younger generation coming.
00:03:52.160There's many ways Florida's winning right now.
00:05:18.120And I don't think that's actually even a realistic expectation.
00:05:21.500However, do you know what is a realistic expectation?
00:05:24.440Find the things that CEOs care about when they're making their decisions.
00:05:28.960So when I'm speaking to CEOs all the time, and listen, I always say when I go to different places, my intention, I'm bringing three businesses back with me, right?
00:05:36.740So I spend a lot of time talking with CEOs because that's also part of my job, and it's also my background.
00:05:43.600And so when I'm talking, I'm saying, like, what are the things that you're most interested in and you're focused on?
00:05:47.900And they'll talk about tax climate, but in many ways, tax climate for a lot of these states, it's the same when I was doing banking.
00:05:56.020And I'm really thankful for the time that I had to do banking, but you realize that whether it was Goldman or Morgan Stanley or Citi offering something, we're talking bips of difference on a deal.
00:06:05.660A company didn't choose to go to Goldman or Morgan Stanley
00:06:08.360because one was offering a better deal
00:06:10.240because generally all the deals were in a similar type of bandwidth
00:07:00.780I said, babe, you don't have an option.
00:07:01.720We're moving to Texas. We moved to Texas in 2016. We moved to Florida 2021. We sold the business June 27th of 2022 for $250 million. Do you know I owned 88% of the company? 13.3% equals what? If I take, let's just do the math right now so we kind of see how this works.
00:07:25.540I just want to say how much money was saved, and I'm just giving basic math here, right?
00:07:30.740If I take 250 times 88%, okay, times 0.133, my kid's got an additional $29 million net in my pocket.
00:07:47.160Why would I stay in some of these states that I have to pay?
00:07:49.200So people are starting to sit there and say, why would I do so?
00:07:52.000at the end of the day people who are small business i'm not a not running open ai i'm not
00:07:59.320you know sergey brand worth 265 billion dollars or musk who left california or some of these other
00:08:04.380i'm not ken griffin in illinois i'm a small business owner that grew it and i sold it for
00:08:08.300a good amount family's got some money i sat there i'm like i'm not paying that 29 million dollars
00:08:13.020that's me it's a meaningful difference and that's the thing right it's like and i think part of the
00:08:17.160thing that we all have to do as chief executives is is you have to be able to make an argument
00:08:23.280to business leaders and to and small business leaders large large large corporations say like
00:08:30.260what is staying here worth it to you for right me let me keep more than my money to make the
00:08:37.580decision instead of giving it to the federal government or the state or the state but but
00:08:41.180and it's also what are the things that you care about right and so part of it is going to be
00:08:46.460Absolutely. Taxes, regulation, talent. Yes. Quality of life. Quality of life. Where do I want my kids to be able to grow up? Where do I want them going to school? Where are they going to feel safe? You have a sense of the historic. Maryland has a sense of historic. Exactly. You have baseball. You have Ravens. You have Ori. You have a lot.
00:09:05.100But we have to also be able to move with a sense of urgency on economic diversification and attractiveness when it comes to businesses.
00:09:13.620Listen, since I've been the governor, and I'm very proud of this, since I've been the governor, we have added over 35,000 new businesses to the state of Maryland.
00:09:20.840Either businesses that have grown within Maryland or businesses that we've gone and stolen from other states.
00:09:25.720So we're happy that we're actually making progress on that front.
00:09:28.780Since I've been the governor, and this is despite watching what's happened with our federal workforce, which I talked about, we've added nearly 100,000 new jobs to the state of Maryland.
00:09:39.160And by the way, that's a majority private sector jobs that have been added.
00:09:45.080But I'm also very clear we've got to move faster because that economic diversification, being able to focus on these new industries of the future, the places that we can uniquely capture that type of alpha and that type of growth for our state is something that we can't compromise on.
00:09:58.680And I think for too long, we've been a state that has relied on asking more of the people who were there and not producing enough to be able to keep them.
00:10:08.620And I think if we can change that mindset and change that mentality, as we started making move towards, we know we have more work to do.
00:10:14.880I think that's going to be the right answer, particularly in the neighborhood that we call home as well.
00:10:19.640I think when your age starts with 65, maybe 70, I think we're going to be neighbors in Palm Beach.