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We were ranked the happiest city in
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America, the healthiest city in America.
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If you had to lay out the road map for
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other cities, but frankly for other
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states, the rest of the country, what's
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the road map? The Francis Suarez road
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map. The formula for success is simple.
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Keep taxes low. Keep people safe. Lean
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into innovation. I lower taxes to the
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lowest level in history. And we've seen
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140% growth in 9 years. So, the economy
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is robust. We have the lowest
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unemployment in America. We have the
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highest median wage growth in America.
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Frankly, if you're happy, you're
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healthy, and you're working, you're
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probably not homeless. And I took the
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city in 2009 as a councilman out of
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bankruptcy. We decided not to raise
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taxes. We cut costs. We didn't let
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anyone go, but we had tiered salary
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cuts, pension reform, and we balanced
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our budget. And we had 10 years of
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prosperity. And that prosperity led to a
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tripling of the size of our government.
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So we went from a $500 million
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government to a billion and a half
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dollar government while lowering taxes.
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When you have a place where there's
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prosperity and where people are
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investing and where people are employed,
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there's not as many social problems. So
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they're not out there killing people.
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the 1980s, we were one of the murder
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capitals of America and we're now one of
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the safest big cities in America. This
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formula for success, what seems simple,
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other cities are getting it wrong
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completely backwards, right? Their taxes
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are high. It's not safe.
