The annual omnibus tax package was released and passed out of the House Ways & Means Committee this week. This year’s tax package includes a two-week back to school sales tax holiday, a two-week disaster preparedness sales tax holiday, a one-week “freedom” sales tax holiday, and a one-week sales tax holiday aimed at tools and equipment for skilled trade workers. The bill, WMC1, also includes a summer-long sales tax exemption on children’s books and a year-long sales tax exemption on diapers and infant and toddler clothing. WMC1 has a sales tax exemption for the purchase of machinery and equipment used for green hydrogen production and includes the Chamber-led effort to exempt emergency loans for small businesses from the documentary stamp tax. The annual piggyback bill, where the state adopts the federal Internal Revenue Code, is also included in WMC1. Unfortunately, the tax package does not address the estimated $1.2 billion corporate income tax increase from the reversion of Florida’s corporate income tax rate to 5.5 percent earlier this year. Also not included is the Governor’s proposal to offer a $1 billion gas tax reduction. Often one of the last bill’s passed each year, the House tax package is a starting point for negotiations with the Senate, which has several different tax proposals working their way through the committee process. 

HB 1193 related to student assessments by Representative Plascencia, unanimously passed its second committee stop this week with only one stop remaining before the House floor. The Senate companion, SB 1048 by Senator Diaz, is ready to be heard on the Senate floor. These bills replace the end of the year “high-stakes” Florida Statewide Assessment with a state standards-aligned progress monitoring system. The bills also enforce timely notification of all testing results to both teachers and parents to help set a course for student progression throughout the school year and leading up to the summative assessment at the end of the year. In order to help ensure today’s learners are best positioned to become tomorrow’s earners, the Florida Chamber supports the enhancement of Florida’s assessment and accountability system to make testing more responsive to the needs of a student while also ensuring parents are better informed of their student’s progress. 

The Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee moved a pair of property insurance proposals this week with overwhelming support of committee members. Both bills, SB 186 and SB 1728, aim to take policies out of Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s intended insurer of last resort, if a takeout offer is received at renewal that is within 20 percent of the premium paid to Citizens Insurance. SB 1728 also attempts to crack down on roofing scams by requiring disclosure during solicitation on what constitutes insurance fraud and allows insurers to offer policies that pay actual cash value on roofs older than 10 years old. Florida’s insurance market has been described as “dire” or in “free fall”, but the House has been resistant in tackling the roofing scam issue this year. HB 1307 in the House includes the Citizens Property Insurance provision but fails to address roofing scams. All three bills- SB 186, SB 1728 and HB 1307- have one committee stop remaining. The Consumer Protection Coalition, led by the Florida Chamber, has activated its grassroots network to urge the legislature to tackle roofing scams this year. You can join this effort by clicking here. 

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