Florida Politics: Winners and losers emerging from the 2021 Legislative Session

Florida TaxWatch — It’s safe to say the nonpartisan watchdog is a winner. Several of their long-standing priorities got top billing this year, including e-fairness, which President and CEO Dominic Calabro and his team have been outspokenly championing since the internet was little more than a series of tubes. Better yet, the online sales tax bill delivered on three other TaxWatch priorities: refueling the re-employment trust fund, slashing the business rent tax, and a technical fix to modernize the sales tax process, changing the estimating process to a rounding rather than bracket system. FTW also provided key backup in the fight for COVID-19 liability protections. Their research — timely and thorough, as always — paved the way for the passage of SB 72 back in March. Their pandemic economic recovery recommendations made over the summer, their quick-turnaround economic impact of the data privacy bill (which the Legislature used to craft a better and more targeted final product), and the critical questions they asked about the controversial M-CORES toll road plan adds the repeal to its pile of victories. Clearly, Florida TaxWatch is a force to be reckoned with.

In on the win: Taxpayers, who can trust FTW, will make sure the hard-earned money they send to Tallahassee is being used responsibly.

Originally Published in Florida Politics.