Curt Schilling is finding out that starting a small business in the state of Massachusetts is more taxing than 50,000 heckling Yankee fans could ever be.
Schilling and wife Shonda were interviewed on Fox Business Network's "America's Nightly Scoreboard" March 26. After discussing Shonda's health problems and their son's Asperger's Syndrome Schilling shared his thoughts on politics and running a businesses in Massachusetts.
"You see the country moving into the wrong direction, and you're trying to get it moving in the other direction. What beyond Scott Brown are you doing now?" host David Asman asked.
"I own a company called 38 Studios, a gaming company which has now got me involved in politics on the state level in a way I never dreamed possible," Schilling said. "There's film and tax credits for the film industry around the country - around the world. The industry that I'm in was a $60 billion a year business last year."
Schilling explained his search for state help and the offers from other states and countries that entice business owners to leave Massachusetts.
"So we went to the state over a year ago - Massachusetts - to begin discussions about tax credits and potential other of being funded through the state because we're at a hundred-fifty jobs looking to move to five-hundred to a thousand jobs," Schilling said. "We're a pre-revenue company, I put $30 million of my own money into this thing - we're looking for the state's assistance to make sure we maintain the ability to ramp up, hire and create new jobs in an incredibly lucrative industry. Now there are other states - other countries - who are offering tax credits and financial incentives to move."
Prompting Asman to chime in, "You don't want to, but when you lose money..."
Schilling interjected: "No! No you don't want to, but as a pre-revenue company, you don't lose money - you go out of business or you launch. Right now for us, it's anywhere from a $25 million to $100 million offer you know somewhere out there."
According to Christine McConville of the Boston Herald, there are nine different states and one country that have tried to woo Schilling's business to relocate.
Asman also sought Schilling's opinion of health care reform and its impact on small businesses in particular.
"What about health care? The whole issue of health care, we know what's just passed - well we don't know what just passed - very few people could actually understand the thing even if they bothered to read it. How is it in your life, how is it in your business this new change that's happened?" Asman asked.
Schilling admitted the plan would probably cost his business.
"Well it's disappointing," Schilling stated. "You know, again - we go back to the fact that we own a small company and we offer what would be considered a Cadillac health plan to our employees because that's how you draw new people."
"But now if you're a small business owner, you can send them off to the government. And it'll be free! Nobody will have to pay," Asman replied sarcastically.
With his wife by his side, Schilling also dismissed Asman's question about running for political office:
"For fourteen years she gave her life to baseball so I could be committed the game and be as good as I can be - my kids did the very same thing. But to retire and go into a life that would be twice as public as professional sports could ever be, twice as intrusive, twice as mean-spirited, angry and nasty as anything - it's not fair to them."
Photo via espn.go.com.
