Will lawmakers omit Gov. DeSantis’ insurance tax cut plan from tax package?

DeSantis green lights millions for improved security at Jewish schools to combat antisemitism.

As insurance premiums have shot up in recent years, lawmakers have addressed it by limiting lawsuits and payouts for lawyers, a change they said would need time to settle in the market before homeowners saw relief in rates.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis had one plan in his budget recommendation that would immediately reduce rates, if only for a time: a one-year elimination of insurance premium taxes. It is projected to save homeowners $431 million.

However, when the House released its tax cut package (HB 7073) last week, the insurance tax cut wasn’t included. The size of the cut likely made it hard to include, since the overall bill reduces taxes by $728.1 million over two years.

But there are logistical hurdles as well.

House Speaker Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican, said eliminating the tax for just one year could pressure future legislators to continue to cut the tax, potentially giving up a large amount of revenue. Then there’s the issue of mandating rate relief for homeowners.

Rates are approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation months before they take effect. DeSantis’ plan calls for a one-year cut in insurance premium taxes, fees and assessments starting July 1 on homes valued at $750,000 or less.

“We’re not going to hand it off to an insurer to absorb that,” Renner told reporters Thursday. “We would want some comfort that it’s going straight to the consumer, straight to the policyholder.”

Renner added that DeSantis’ plan could still make it into the final bill, after negotiations with the Senate.

“This is a starting point and we’ll still continue the conversation,” he said. “We don’t have opposition necessarily to finding a way to give homeowners … a break.”

The House plan also skimps on other areas of DeSantis’ tax cut recommendations.

DeSantis proposed two separate two-week back-to-school sales tax holidays, one at the beginning of the Fall semester and another in January at the start of the Spring semester, as the Legislature approved for the current year. The House plan only has one holiday lasting two weeks starting July 29. Consumers are projected to save $97.3 million.

DeSantis also wants a “Freedom Summer” — a sales tax holiday on a variety of events and outdoor items lasting for three months from Memorial Day to Labor Day, as lawmakers approved last summer. The House plan only has a “Freedom Month” lasting the whole of July. The break applies to tickets for sports events, movies, state parks, museums, ballets, plays, concerts, fairs, festivals and gym memberships. Supplies for camping, fishing, boating and other activities and items are included as well, but it would last only through July instead of for three summer months, as was the case last year. Consumers are expected to save $90.4 million.

The House plan also omits DeSantis’ plan to permanently cut sales taxes on over-the-counter pet medications. Instead, it includes pet medications and other pet care items in two separate disaster preparedness sales tax holidays on hurricane season items such as generators, batteries, tarps and more. Those holidays would run June 1-14 and Aug. 24-Sept. 6. Shoppers are poised to save $80.6 million.

Another prong of the DeSantis plan eschewed by the House package is a proposal to double the amount small businesses can save when they remit sales taxes. Businesses can currently deduct $30 on the first $1,200 they return to the state in sales taxes. DeSantis wants to boost the deduction to $60, saving businesses $165 million. But that added savings didn’t make it into HB 7073.

One piece of DeSantis’ budget proposal that lawmakers did include is a break of up to $10,000 per business for companies that hire disabled workers, which is expected to save companies $5 million. But the break is only for three years, in contrast to the permanent break DeSantis requested.

Senate Finance and Tax Committee Chair Blaise Ingoglia will release the Senate’s tax package later this week. Each chamber will pass its version ahead of talks to sort out the final bill before the end of the Regular Session, scheduled for March 8.