Francis Suarez: Slash the Florida sales tax

Recovering from a hurricane is hard.

As a Floridian who has survived many of them, I know the pain, frustration and devastation firsthand in terms of lives, livelihood, and financial security. This is especially true when a business is lost, a home is destroyed, or a lifetime of savings evaporates.

It doesn’t help when the costs of living keep rising, crushing families as they rebuild their lives. Our neighbors on the west coast of Florida need our help, and they need more than just our prayers; they — along with a growing number of struggling Floridians — need bold action!

I believe that now is the time to slash the Florida sales tax so Florida’s families can recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ian and weather the growing scourge of national inflation.

We’ve done it before, and we must now do it again.

Moreover, the next Florida sales tax cut must be clear, broad, and permanent: no more tax holidays, no more carveouts, no more gimmicks. It must be real, substantive, and it must offset the growing cost of recovery along with the surging cost of living, from food staples to rent and beyond.

Let’s be honest: the current sales tax is a uniform set rate tax that affects everyone but especially cuts hard into the pockets of working people and senior citizens far more than the affluent or prosperous.

An across-the-board reduction now would help working Floridians and those on fixed incomes, especially those devastated by the current hurricane season while restraining government expenditure in the long run.

The tax relief of the past four years has been too limited and too temporary to make a dent in rising costs. Temporary tax holidays serve a specific purpose with a defined, quantifiable end. But tax holidays only work when married to a larger economic growth strategy that delivers sustained economic recovery. An across-the-board cut in the sales tax would sustain the growth of our expanding revenue base while helping small businesses and working people; and it would force our state government to shrink, not grow.

We need to send a decisive signal to the market: Florida remains ready, willing and open for business.

Building on over 20 years of conservative state leadership, Florida is now in a position to build a next-generation economy with next-generation technology, a thriving ecosystem of small businesses, and a diversifying economy that leverages talent and hard work to create wealth for everyone.

From Pensacola to Palm Beach, the Florida economy is entering its most dynamic stage of growth since the arrival of the space program.

Right now, our state enjoys record surpluses with ample cash. We were fortunate for the prudent stewardship and record reinvestments made under Jeb Bush and Rick Scott. Their hard work, from charter schools to economic leadership, has delivered our sustained development. Both of them believed in cutting our tax rates as a philosophical and practical imperative.

It worked then and it will work now.

As Mayor of Miami, a native Floridian and a proud Gator, I’ve been asked many times about how Florida can ensure our recent prosperity is built to last far beyond Miami.

The truth is that the current Miami Miracle is our Florida future.

We cut taxes, we cut crime and we leaned into innovation. We can and we must do the same across Florida so we can protect our communities and secure our future prosperity.

Finally, Florida must lead nationally by combating Washington’s inflationary spending and dysfunctional regulation and it starts with slashing the largest tax we have.

We know Washington has created this persistent, if not corrosive, form of inflation for working families. It has spent too much money and then combined it with regulations that restrict the critical supplies of energy, productive output, and broader access to markets. Navigating this economic storm means slashing taxes, like the sales taxes that burden supply and create added costs for consumers.

It would also provide immediate relief by offsetting the rising costs of goods while also reducing the transaction costs for businesses now ordering more supplies or goods.

Now is the best time to return Floridians’ own money back to Floridians.

It’s good policy; it’s good politics, and it’s good for all Floridians.

We can afford to do no less for Florida’s families and Florida’s future.

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Francis X. Suarez is the 43rd Mayor of Miami.