Mortgage firm to add 100 jobs | Sept. 23
Incentives waste our tax dollars
With Gov. Scott's Enterprise Florida operation, Pinellas County and Hillsborough County commissions and all major cities within these locations, the politicians sure know how to waste tax dollars for little or no benefit.
Giving tax incentives for incoming business ventures was how Donald Trump hoodwinked the system legally and made millions. Yet now many claim Trump is capable of being our next president.
I guess he knows where the benefits are!
Business organizations like the area chamber of commerce can pound the desktops and champion what our community has done to promote business. What a laugh. Wouldn't it be at least a little better, say, to give benefits to those incoming people who have school-age children?
Oh, well, what do I know? Let the system roll on. The system is set in its ways and is not about to change with those in power. I would pose this one question: Have you ever known anyone who was hired for one of the these tax-incentive jobs?
Donald Kreis, Largo
Enterprise Florida
A facilitator of global success
Expanding into international markets can be vital to the success of a small company's growth strategy. This has been the case for our company, Mercury Medical.
We are a local manufacturer of medical devices, specializing in anesthesia, critical care and emergency disposables. We have been in business for more than 50 years, but since 2007 we have seen our export sales revenue grow by 1,600 percent.
A key organization in helping us grow our export sales, and facilitating a positive experience in maneuvering in the international markets, has been Enterprise Florida Inc. Through the years, our company has received Target Sector Trade Grants, participated in trade missions, exhibited in worldwide events and trade shows, conducted market research programs, and participated in numerous programs supported by EFI.
The value to a small company like ours in having an organization like Enterprise Florida assist us with our exports, by providing know-how and trade support in the international field, has been invaluable.
The exposure that we have gotten in the various trade shows from exhibiting with EFI in the Florida pavilions has already proved instrumental in our efforts to get brand recognition and a global footprint. We are now selling to companies in more than 70 countries.
The challenges that we all are currently facing across the globe are many.
However, if we were to have more entities like Enterprise Florida behind our efforts, international business could flourish for many American corporations.
If your company is thinking about growing internationally through exporting but does not know how to take the next step, I encourage you to reach out to EFI and learn more of the wonderful trade programs available to us, right here in our communities.
Ivette Compton, Clearwater
Compton is director of International sales for Mercury Medical.
Redeveloped Tampa mapped out | Sept. 20
What about transportation?
The article caught my interest immediately. It confirms what any regular reader of the Tampa Bay Times knows: Exciting things are planned for downtown, with one exception: rapid transit.
The head-buried-in-the-sand attitude by those who vote against rapid transit astounds me.
How can you have a vibrant metro community without it? Tampa Bay has the potential to be one of the top-tier metro areas in the country, but it will continue its second-class status without rapid transit.
Sherri Marquez, Clearwater