Staff Reports
Gov. Rick Scott will visit Fort Myers, Sanford and Jacksonville Monday — and he will be promoting what his office calls “major” tax cuts that add up to $180 million in potential savings.
Among the proposals: a 10-day back-to-school tax holiday, three week-long storm prep tax holidays and cutting the prices of drivers’ license renewals from $48 to $20.
The back-to-school tax holiday in 2017 was just one weekend, and this is clearly an expansion of that concept. The same held true for the disaster prep tax holiday.
Though there are worries, especially in the light of Hurricane Irma, that the state is going to have a tighter budget year than it would otherwise, Scott clearly is undeterred in pushing for these proposals.
Gov. Scott, in addressing other proposals such as his environmental budget, has justified his spending proposals by saying “the big thing today is we have the money to do these things.
“I am proud to announce today that during the upcoming Legislative Session, I will fight to cut $180 million in taxes for families. This includes sales tax holidays to help families get prepared for the school year and for hurricane season, which is especially important following the devastation we saw from Hurricane Irma.
“I am also proposing to roll back many driver’s license fees, which will put money back into pockets of virtually every Florida family. These fees were raised in 2009 before I came into office, and I am proud to cut them by more than 58 percent to help every Floridian when they renew their license,” Scott added.
“Over the past seven years, we have worked relentlessly to turn around Florida’s economy and the results are clear – our unemployment rate has dropped to a more than ten year low of 3.8 percent, business have created more than 1.3 million private sector jobs and we have been able to make historic investments in education, transportation and our environment,” Scott continued.
“All of this was accomplished while cutting taxes more than 75 times, saving more than $7.5 billion for Florida families and job creators. Cutting taxes works and the rest of the nation needs to follow Florida’s lead. I am also fighting to make it harder for politicians to raise taxes in the future and I look forward to working with the Legislature during the upcoming session on these proposals,” Scott maintained.
The gaggles in these three cities may be more memorable than the actual proposals; expect Gov. Scott to get hammered with questions about his extension of “prayers” via Twitter after a mass shooting in a Texas church Sunday, and questions about the latest round of alleged sex scandals in Tallahassee.
