It took an extra three weeks, but the Florida legislature concluded their work for 2015 with scant little done for small business.
Legislature Stops Obamacare Expansion but Abandons Other Priorities
It took an extra three weeks, but the Florida legislature concluded their work for 2015 with scant little done for small business, unless you count stopping a huge expansion of Obamacare in Florida that would have obligated billions of Florida tax dollars in the future.
NFIB was the only business group in Tallahassee to oppose Medicaid expansion, and seems to have paid a price for our opposition to Senate President Andy Gardiner’s priority by having most of our proactive legislation dismissed by the Senate.
NFIB supported a cut to the sales tax on commercial leases and rents, a tax that almost every small business owner in the state pays in one form or another. NFIB also featured a Small Business Saturday sales tax holiday, which would have made all purchases (under $1000 per item) at any small business ($3.3 million in annual sales or less) sales-tax free on November 28.
NFIB also supported legislation on Direct Primary Care, which would clear the way for individuals and businesses to contract directly with doctors to obtain low-cost primary health care.
All three of these NFIB priorities passed with broad bi-partisan support from the Florida House of Representatives, and all three proposals were unceremoniously disposed of by the Florida Senate.
On their way to passing a record $78.7 billion state budget, the legislature did pass $400 million in tax reductions, but almost all of the tax cut revenue went to cutting the tax on cell phone, cable TV, and internet access charges, and included no broad-based business tax cuts.