Gov. Rick Scott’s administration offered $162,000 in state tax breaks to bring to South Florida the manufacturer of the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle, even though the U.S. had imposed sanctions against Russian-made military assault weapons.
The Department of Economic Opportunity signed the tax refund deal with the owner of Kalashnikov USA – RWC Group LLC – in October 2015. Taxpayer money was offered under the department’s qualified target industry program that looks to create jobs in exchange for state benefits. In this case, the target industry the governor was trying to attract is listed as “small arms manufacturing.”
President Barack Obama imposed sanctions against Russia’s Concern Kalashnikov in July 2014 after Russia did not end the Ukraine conflict. Since then, its former American counterpart has worked “to transform our company and staff from an importer and…compliant conversion specialist, to a full-fledged manufacturer,” according Kalashnikov USA’s website.
Since Scott’s first year in office, the governor has sought to bring gun makers to Florida. In 2011, for example, he promised $1.6 million in incentives to Colt Manufacturing Co. to open a plant and add 63 jobs in Osceola County to build AR-15 rifles, like the one police say was used in last week’s slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
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