by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Florida manufacturers want to increase their competitiveness and are asking the state for help.
A Florida TaxWatch Research Report presented to the Enterprise Florida economic development organization Thursday in Tampa asks for political leaders to help.
It asks for state leaders and lawmakers to modify two incentives programs, eliminate taxes of manufacturing inputs, eliminate sales taxes on the purchases of machinery and equipment and continue to invest in the state’s transportation system and infrastructure, such as the deepening of the Port of Miami.
“It sounds like I wrote the report,” said Lad Daniels, president of the First Coast Manufacturers Association, whose 300-member organization issued much the same wish list last fall.
“The bottom line is manufacturing is vital to Florida’s economy,” he said.
The group is part of the Manufacturers Association of Florida. J. Thomas Ryan, president and CEO of Jacksonville-based Swisher International Inc., said the state group commissioned the report from Florida TaxWatch.
TaxWatch is a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan taxpayer research institute that was created 29 years ago.
Ryan said the report is a road map for improvement to the state’s economic situation “if people look at it and heed it and pay attention to it.”
Enterprise Florida is a public-private partnership serving as Florida’s primary organization focused on statewide economic development.
The report’s executive summary said that manufacturing plays an important role in Florida and is a significant provider of high-wage and high value-added jobs, but is lagging in manufacturing investment because of “significant, identifiable barriers.”
Manufacturing is the sixth largest employer in the state, outside of the farm and government sectors, and accounts for about 5 percent of the employment, said the report.
By metro area, Jacksonville ranks No. 4 in the state for the number of manufacturing jobs, listed at 26,900. While the state has 5 percent of its employment in manufacturing, Jacksonville’s percentage is 4.6 percent.
The highest manufacturing employment in the state is in Miami, at 72,300 jobs, and the area with the highest share of its jobs in manufacturing is Lakeland-Winter Haven, at 7.17 percent, and Ocala, at 7.11 percent.
The study emphasized on the higher average wages in manufacturing as well as its high capital spending.
It said that manufacturing also is “both key to Florida’s exports and is a driver of research and development.”
“Florida has great opportunity to increase the state’s manufacturing sector, which will attract capital, create high-wage jobs, increase productivity and enhance economic stability for the state,” it said.
However, Florida’s manufacturing sector lags behind the strength of its Southeast competitor states.
“Florida’s political and economic leaders must take active steps to make Florida more attractive to manufacturers in order to attract capital formation and job creation,” it said.
Specifically, it said, the state should modify its Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund Program and its Capital Investment Tax Credit programs to allow for smaller companies to invest their capital in the state.
It said that there should be taxes eliminated on manufacturing inputs and that sales taxes should be eliminated on the purchases of machinery and equipment.
It also asked for an accelerated depreciation schedule on valuations for tangible personal property taxes, which lowers the penalty for capital accumulation.
The report also said that improvements to transportation infrastructure will increase national and international competitiveness.
Nancy D. Stephens, executive director of the Manufacturers Association of Florida in Tallahassee, said Thursday the group will take the next step.
“We will be proposing legislation to incentivize capital investment by manufacturers for 2012,” she said.
She said the legislation has not been written yet.
Stephens is a registered lobbyist for the association.
She said the association also commissioned the 2009 Florida TaxWatch study, which found that manufacturers in the state had six times the economic impact of the agricultural industry.
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Fast facts
• Manufacturing is the sixth largest employment sector in Florida outside of farm and government jobs.
• Manufacturing accounts for about 5 percent of the state’s employment.
• Manufactured goods account for 85-90 percent of all Florida exports.
• Florida manufacturers spent about $3.25 billion on capital goods in 2008.
• Florida’s per capita manufacturing capital spending fell from $176.37 in 2008 to $138.20 in 2009.
Source: Florida TaxWatch Research Report
Distribution of Florida jobs
| Jobs | Percentage |
| Trade, transportation & utilities | 24% |
| Education & health services | 17.9% |
| Professional & business services | 17% |
| Leisure & hospitality | 15.6% |
| Financial activities | 7.6% |
| Construction | 5.5% |
| Other services | 5.1 |
| Manufacturing | 5% |
| Information | 2.2% |
| Mining & logging | 0.1% |
| Metropolitan area | Manufacturing jobs | % of nonfarm area jobs |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale | 72,300 | 3.27% |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg | 57,500 | 5.1% |
| Orlando | 37,700 | 3.7% |
| Jacksonville | 26,900 | 4.6% |
| Melbourne-Titusville | 20,100 | 10.51% |
| West Palm Beach-Boca Raton | 15,300 | 3.02% |
| Lakeland-Winter Haven | 14,000 | 7.17% |
| Bradenton-Sarasota | 13,100 | 5.42% |
| Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach | 7,400 | 4.74% |
| Ocala | 6,400 | 7.11% |