Gov. Rick Scott this morning held a press conference in the City of Gulf Breeze to recognize AppRiver for creating 100 jobs over the past five years.
Launched in 2002 by Mike Murdoch and Joel Smith, AppRiver offers cloud-based cybersecurity and productivity services to 47,000 companies worldwide, with more than 10 million mailboxes under its protection.
“I want to thank every business person in Santa Rosa and Escambia counties, and all around the state, that takes the risk, puts their money up, has a new idea and is willing to go out and make it happen and to add all these jobs,” said Scott. “Adding an initial 100 jobs over the last 5 years, there’s not many companies that can do that.”
Gov. Scott also took the time to thank State Representatives Doug Broxson and Matt Gaetz for their support of his economic development efforts. Broxson is running for State Senate, Gaetz is running for Congress.
“Doug and I got elected the exact same time, back in 2010,” said the governor. “He’s demonstrated incredible dedication to the people in this area of the state, including people all around the state. He’s been a leader in a lot of things, including insurance reform. On top of that, I remember, right after we got elected, we were dealing with what was the one year anniversary of the BPÂ oil spill. He was in my office constantly, making sure that BP and the state and everybody did the right thing with regards to that oil spill. He was relentless to make sure that families and businesses here were taken care of.”
Scott praised Broxson for his support.
“He’s also been at a variety of job announcements with me,” he said. “Probably not many that are significant as this one. He’s always incredibly supportive of what we can do to make this the number one place to do business in the world. He celebrates every new job opportunity just like I do. I just want to thank Representative Doug Broxson for being here today”
The governor also praised the “quiet and shy” Matt Gaetz. “He got elected before I came to Tallahassee. I actually watched him on the Florida channel when he was sworn in. He’s worked very hard up here. He’s known as a tax champion, i.e., lower tax champion. He’s led a lot of the efforts we’ve had to reduce taxes. By the way, we’ve cut taxes 55 times since I got elected and Matt’s been involved in every tax cut.”
“I haven’t found a tax that he actually didn’t want to cut, whhich I agree with him,” said Scott. “He is somebody that knows the importance of giving money back to Florida families and because of his hard work and Doug Broxson’s hard work, we have been able to reduce taxes and give money back.”
Scott pointed out that he and the state legislature have cut 4,200 regulations in the state over past five and year. “Matt’s been one of the leaders in helping get that done. Most things you can get done through the governor’s office or agencies, some of you … You need to work to accelerate things by working with the legislature and Matt’s been a big help with that.”
The governor said both lawmakers are men of their word. He said, “What’s nice about Doug and Matt, you know exactly where they stand. They’re never inconsistent.”
Rep. Broxson thanked the governor for his support and said that Rick Scott is one of his heroes.
“When I first met you when you were running and you told me of your vision to build jobs in this state, I said, ‘Could it be done?’ You’ve done it. Thank you,” said Broxson.
He said that jobs give a family a sense of self-worth, reduce crime and drug addiction, and give a family a sense of well being.
“Governor, you have done that for Pensacola,” said Broxson. “When you had a vision for keeping the Navy Federal here rather than them moving back to their campus in Virginia, you worked hard. I flew over here with you and we convinced them to stay. Now we’re going to have 10,000 jobs in just a short period of time.”
He added, “You’ve done it and you’ve done it with style and dignity and we’re so honored that you’re here today. We love your family. We love what you’ve done and God bless you for serving the state of Florida.”
After the press conference, the media had few minutes with Gov. Scott. I asked if he was endorsing the campaigns of Broxson and Gaetz. It was noticeable the Broxson’s opponent, Rep. Mike Hill, was in the room, but not invited to speak.
“I haven’t been endorsing those races,” said Scott. “I can tell you that both Matt Gaetz and Doug Broxson were good partners in the legislature, but you know there’s three branches of government, so to get tax cuts done, I work with the legislature to get them done. Both Matt and Doug were very helpful in getting that, and reducing regulations. They both care about the military, they want to make sure we’re a military-friendly state, a veteran-friendly state. We passed a lot of legislation, assorted GI bills to help more veterans, and that’s why we’re the most veteran-friendly state in the nation.
I pushed the point, “Do we infer (from comments) that Mike Hill wasn’t a good person to work with?
Gov. Scott replied, “I worked with Doug and Matt a lot, and so that’s why I highlighted them today.”