Ever since Gov. Rick Scott arrived in Tallahassee, one of his core principles was to slash the amount corporations pay in taxes. He failed to get corporate tax cuts through the state legislature in his first year, but he is not giving up on his dream to eliminate corporate taxes.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Scott made the pitch for lower corporate taxes in Jacksonville on January 9, where he made the claim once again that the state is putting too much of the tax burden on companies. Scott wanted to do corporate tax cuts in last year, but even with Republican super-majorities in both the state House and Senate, he was unable to get the support for $2 billion of tax cuts for corporations. Scott issued a press release saying:
Florida's current policy puts our state at a competitive disadvantage because most states do not force manufactures to pay taxes on the purchase of equipment or require them to adhere to regulations for tax exemptions. In order to build up our manufacturing jobs in Florida, we must remove these barriers to investment.
According to the Sentinel, the state already hands out sales-tax exemptions to expanding companies the buy industrial machinery and equipment that shows productivity gains. It was lowered to 5 percent in last year's legislative session and Scott now wants to do away with the production gains entirely.
Jackie Schutz, Scott's spokeswoman, to the Sentinel that he would like for lawmakers to find offsetting cuts for the production gain's proposal, which is expected to be a $115 million hit to revenue streams.
Last year’s tax cut proposal was a "grab-bag" that included cuts for entertainment and space companies as well as Scott's $9.9 million corporate tax-cut. The total cost of the bill was estimated at $118.3 million, which was too much to swallow for lawmakers.
Stay tuned.
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