Weekly political notes from The News Service of Florida
By Jim Turner
©2023 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — One of the biggest parts of a $1.3 billion tax package passed this spring will take hold Friday: a cut in Florida’s commercial-lease tax from 5.5 percent to 4.5 percent.
Projected to save businesses $219.3 million this fiscal year, the tax is slated to be further lowered to 2 percent next year as part of a 2021 deal.
For groups such as the National Federation of Independent Business-Florida, that isn’t low enough.
NFIB-Florida State Executive Director Bill Herrle, in an op-ed, said the tax should be zeroed out in 2025.
“When lawmakers return to Tallahassee in January, our small business members will encourage them to eliminate this onerous tax once and for all,” Herrle wrote.
The state has imposed the tax since 1969, and business lobbying groups have long sought to whittle the rate.
As part of the 2021 agreement, lawmakers approved reducing the rate from 5.5 percent to 2 percent, based on when the state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund is replenished to its level before the COVID-19 pandemic. As an interim step during the 2023 session, lawmakers agreed to reduce the rate from 5.5 percent to 4.5 percent.
The unemployment trust fund was squeezed as businesses shut down and workers lost jobs early in the pandemic. The 2021 decision to reduce the commercial-lease tax to 2 percent was part of a deal that also included requiring out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases made by Floridians.
A legislative staff analysis this year projected the unemployment fund will be replenished in time to allow the 2 percent tax rate to take effect in August 2024.
Herrle said the tax is a “unique” burden costing businesses that operate in Florida $1 billion a year.
“This is a tax that the Florida Legislature could eliminate,” Herrle wrote. “The last few years have seen record revenues coming into the state coffers. It’s more than past time to take a small portion of those record revenues and return them to the job creators.”
REPARATIONS DEBATE EMERGES
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, wants to end talk of Floridians paying reparations to descendants of slaves.
Ingoglia, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, on Monday filed a proposed constitutional amendment (SJR 582) that would prevent the state and local governments from paying such reparations.
“Slavery was a heinous act and it’s a stain on this country, but to pay an amount of money for something that happened 200 years ago, I just don’t think it’s a great policy,” Ingoglia told The News Service of Florida. “Quite frankly, we should take the money they are talking about in reparations and reallocate it and make sure we are investing in Black and brown communities.”
Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, derided the proposal as an attempt to “manufacture crises” and as “yet another political scare tactic” to distract Floridians from Republican management of issues such as property insurance, housing affordability and gun violence.
Rep. Ashley Gantt, D-Miami, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that a “continued anti-Blackness continues to be the theme in the free state of Florida.”
Shortly after the proposal was filed, the Republican Party of Florida put out out a fundraising email that included a poll asking if taxpayers should pay reparations “such as cash payments or land-based compensation — for slavery?”
In posing the question, the party noted that a state panel in California raised the prospect of reparations. The Associated Press reported that such a proposal in California could cost about $800 billion.
A University of California at Berkeley poll in September indicated such a proposal would be a tough sell, with only 23 percent support. California Republicans were nearly unanimous in opposition, while Democrats were split. Among racial groups, a majority of support was found only among Black voters.
“While a majority of California voters believe that Black Americans continue to be affected by the legacy of slavery, our poll is showing that there is no real strong support for cash reparations to deal with the situation,” Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll, told NPR.
NOMINATION HITS WALL
President Joe Biden’s nomination of former state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, D-Miami, as an assistant labor secretary failed to advance this week in the U.S. Senate.
A procedural vote intended to set up a final confirmation vote failed 44-51.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., joined Republicans in voting against Rodríguez. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., changed his vote to leave open the possibility of revisiting the nomination.
An aide to Manchin told the Bloomberg news organization that the senator had concerns about Rodríguez’ “political activism and lack of experience.” Manchin represents a state deeply invested in the coal industry.
Rodríguez served in the state Senate from 2016 to 2020, after serving in the state House. He was known for wearing rain boots at the Capitol to highlight the need for legislation on climate change.
He lost a 2020 re-election bid by 32 votes to Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, in a controversial contest.
SOCIAL MEDIA POST OF THE WEEK: “Bless their hearts; they have no shame.” — U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., (@USRepKCastor) on Republicans cheering infrastructure projects they voted against, after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., toured Sarasota Bradenton International Airport with members of the Florida congressional delegati
