FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2013Governor Rick Scott visited Stevens Construction, a healthcare and commercial construction management firm founded and headquartered in Fort Myers, to highlight the more than $10 billion in taxes cut for Florida families and job creators during the governor\u2019s time in office. This includes cutting taxes nearly 100 times, including nearly $550 million in tax cuts during the most recent legislative session. Governor Scott also recognized the overwhelming, bipartisan passage of HJR 7001, which will place an amendment to the Florida Constitution on the November 2018 ballot that will give Floridians the opportunity to vote on making it harder for politicians to raise taxes and fees. The Governor will continue to highlight these tax cuts in Doral, Ft. Myers, West Palm Beach, and Orlando this today and tomorrow.<\/p>\n
The nearly $550 million in tax cuts passed during the 2018 legislative session include:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Sales Tax Holidays to Save Families $38.5 Million \u2013 The tax cut package includes funding for two sales tax holidays which will save Floridians an estimated $38.5 million in the upcoming fiscal year. These sales tax holidays include:<\/p>\n
o $32.7 million from a 3-day back-to-school sales tax holiday; and<\/p>\n
o $5.8 million from a one-week disaster preparedness sales tax.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Sales Tax Exemptions in Agricultural Materials to Save Farmers $11.6 Million \u2013 The tax cut package includes tax relief for Florida\u2019s farmers to help in their continued recovery Hurricane Irma.<\/p>\n
o $8.8 million from a sales tax exemption on nonresidential farm building materials; and<\/p>\n
o $2.8 million from a sales tax exemption on agricultural fencing.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Property Tax Hurricane Relief of $10.5 Million for Florida\u00b4s Farmers \u2013 The bill reduces the 2018 property tax assessment on citrus processing and packing plants, and processing equipment slowed due to citrus greening or Hurricane Irma.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Sales Tax on Commercial Rent to Save Florida Small Businesses $31 Million \u2013 The tax cut package reduces the rate on business rent tax by 0.1%, from 5.8% to 5.7%.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Increase in Corporate Income Tax Credits to Save Businesses $13.5 Million<\/p>\n
o $8.5 million for voluntary brownfields clean-up; and<\/p>\n
o $5 million for community contribution credits.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Reduction in Traffic Citation Fines to Save Floridians $1.8 Million \u2013 The bill reduces many traffic citation fines for individuals who attend a driver improvement school.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Reduction in Local Business Taxes of $19.1 Million \u2013 The bill creates an exemption from applicable local business taxes for businesses owned by veterans and their spouses, non-remarried surviving spouses of such veterans, spouses of certain active duty military servicemembers, and low-income persons who engage in or manage a business, profession, or occupation.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Reduction in Property Taxes to Save Florida Families $377 Million \u2013 The budget cuts the required local effort property tax rate to save Florida homeowners and business property owners more than $377 million in property taxes.<\/p>\n
Amendment to the Florida Constitution:<\/p>\n
This year, the Florida Legislature overwhelmingly passed a resolution proposed by Governor Scott that will make it harder for politicians to raise taxes and fees. Amendment 5, if approved by 60 percent of Florida voters this year, will require a 2\/3 majority of future legislatures to raise any tax or fee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2013Governor Rick Scott visited Stevens Construction, a healthcare and commercial construction management firm founded and headquartered in Fort Myers, to highlight the more than $10 billion in taxes cut for Florida families and job creators during the governor\u2019s time in office. This includes cutting taxes nearly 100 times, including nearly $550 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finances"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n