Gov. Rick Scott’s tax cut proposal got a boost Monday when the Senate’s chairwoman of the tax and finance committee said she supports his plan to cut taxes on cell phones and TVs by $470 million.
“For a state of almost 20 million, 19 plus million, we have 18 million plus cell phones,” said Sen. Dororthy Hukill, R-Port Orange. “So there’s almost a cell phone for every man, woman, child and maybe baby. I think it’s a good way to go.”
Currently, Hukill has a bill that would reduce the communication services tax by 2 percent, which is less than Scott’s proposed 3.6 percent cut of the CST. But she told reporters that she plans to amend her bill to match Scott’s proposed rate decrease. Like Scott, she intends to hold local municipalities that collect the CST harmless, so they won’t see a reduction in revenue.
Hukill and her committee also expressed support for other measures in Scott’s package.
It unanimously passed one of Hukill’s bills, SB 138, that would raise the corporate tax exemption from $50,000 to $75,000, eliminating the tax for 2,189 businesses and costing state coffers $7.6 million in 2015-16, and $18.7 million the following year.
“I’m a believer in broad-based tax relief that covers more people,” Hukill said.
Bit by bit, the plan is to eliminate the corporate income tax, which Florida first began imposing in 1972 at a 5 percent rate. It was increased to 5.5 percent in 1984.
It the tax is eliminated in the next couple of years, Florida would become the seventh state that doesn’t charge a corporate income tax.
“The assumption is that if corporations pay less to government in taxes they will spend more on capital and salaries and it will help job creation,” Hukill said Monday as the main pitch for her bill.
But that assumes those states that have eliminated the tax (Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming) are booming with industry Florida wants and can get. Nevermind that Texas oil companies will likely stay in Texas, while South Dakoa and Wyoming natural gas companies will stay put in those states.
But that’s how the cut is being sold now, and so far, there’s little opposition. The lobbyists for Associated Industries and the Florida Chamber of Commerce had easy days. After watching most of the committee members voice support of it, they didn’t bother to make a public pitch for the tax cut.
Three Democrats on the committee voted with the Republicans, even though two of them, Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, and Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Coconut Grove, had reservations.
“I’m all for tax cuts,” Soto said. “I just think they have to be targeted and measured. I’d hope that we could find committee staff that could score these better and see what kind of bang for our buck we’re getting.”
“I’m concerned we’re taking up tax exemptions before we have an idea of what the budget is going to do,” Margolis said.
Republicans like Wilton Simpson of Trilby, had no hesitation with what he called a modest cut in the corporate income tax.
“Let’s just eliminate the tax altogether,” he said.
Another proposed tax cut by Scott, a sales tax exemption on college text books that would cost $41.4 million, got a top grade from Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami.
"It's small, but it's something that's tangible for real Floridians," Flores said.
Still unclear is how a cut in commercial property leases, which is popular with Hukill and other senators, will make the cut. Scott didn't include it. Hukill is pushing for a 1 percent cut in the tax in SB 140.
"We need to do it eventually," Hukill said.
Comments