Lawmakers are closer to giving Gov. Rick Scott one of his priorities for the 2014 session, an election-year rollback of vehicle-registration fees that were raised under the watch of his potential Democratic challenger.
But while lawmakers should get to Scott’s $500 million goal for cutting taxes and fees, they likely will take a different approach on some of the details. Along with rolling back the vehicle-registration fees, lawmakers may look toward an assortment of tax cuts and tax-free shopping periods, rather than approving a Scott request to slash $100 million from taxes on commercial leases.
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously amended a proposal (SB 156) by Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, to reduce the vehicle-registration fees. Under the revised proposal, motorists would potentially save between $20 and $25 per vehicle registration, with the total depending on the size of the vehicle.
The reduction would collectively save motorists about $309 million during the upcoming 2014-15 budget year, with the new rates going into effect Sept. 1.
The savings would grow the following year to about $395 million, when they would be in effect for the full 12 months. State fiscal years start in July.
Scott has called for cutting about $400 million in vehicle-registration fees, eliminating increases signed into law in 2009 by potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, then a Republican occupying the governor’s mansion.
Negron called his initial Senate package, which sought first-year savings of $185 million, or about $12 per vehicle, a starting point. And he added that the “governor’s been very persuasive on his plan.”
The amendment brings the Senate version of the vehicle-fee reduction in line with a House proposal (PCB 14-04), which was unanimously backed last week by the House Finance and Tax Subcommittee.
Unlike in the Senate Appropriations Committee meeting, House Democrats offered more critical comments.
Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, said the proposal has become a “political football in many ways.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, said the reduction is simply being done to aid Scott’s re-election.
Finance and Tax Chairman Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, called Moskowitz’s comments “misguided” and added that the subcommittee continues to plan a wide range of ideas to reach Scott’s goal of reducing $500 million in taxes and fees.
Scott has requested a $100 million reduction in the commercial-lease tax, which now generates about $1.4 billion a year in revenue for the state. But Workman said his approach will be more broad-based.
“The big ones are off the tables, the (communications services tax), the corporate rent tax, because they won’t fit in a $100 million package,” Workman said. “But we’ve got things like the corporate-income taxes that are still on the table, all the holidays, the back-to-school holiday, hurricane preparedness holiday, things I can use for the non-recurring portion.”
Scott has pitched increasing the corporate income-tax exemption from $50,000 to $75,000, which would reduce general-revenue funds by $21.6 million during the first year and $22.8 million the second year.
Workman added that a proposal by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam for a sales-tax holiday on energy-efficient appliances is still in the mix.