Statement on the Release of the Governor's Budget

Florida TaxWatch President and CEO Dominic M. Calabro released the following statement on the Governor Rick Scott’s proposed budget:

"Earlier today, Governor Scott revealed his proposed budget for consideration by the 2017 Legislature. His ‘Fighting for Florida’s Future’ budget aims to cut taxes for Floridians by $618 million (which includes a cut to the Business Rent Tax (BRT)), includes a $85 million investment in economic incentives and calls for $21 billion in state and local funding to improve Florida’s K-12 education system,

“Florida TaxWatch thanks the Governor for calling for a reduction to the BRT. Cutting this burdensome tax is a long-standing TaxWatch recommendation and is the only state-wide sales tax on commercial leases in the country. It puts all of our businesses, especially smaller ones, at a competitive disadvantage against the rest of the nation. Phasing out this tax would result in considerable savings for all our hard-working business owners.

“Florida TaxWatch will be analyzing the Governor’s budget in the coming days and will be releasing a thorough look at the impact of his budget requests in the next edition of the Florida TaxWatch Budget Watch. We know that the eventual repeal of the BRT will be a long-term process, but just as we did with the repeal of the intangibles tax, we will continue to provide the research to show it is the right thing to do for Florida.”

Read about Florida TaxWatch's research on the BRT here.