Florida residents would pay $5 billion less in sales taxes under House speaker's plan

Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez thinks state government has a spending problem.

And to take away the "temptation" to spend, he's pushing a $5 billion a year cut to the state sales tax.

"This will not be a temporary measure, a stunt or a tax holiday. This will be a permanent, recurring tax reduction," Perez, R-Miami, told members on the floor Wednesday.

"This will be the largest state tax cut in the history of Florida. If we are successful, we will become the only state in the history of the United States of America to permanently reduce its sales tax."

Under Perez's plan, the state sales tax would be cut from 6% to 5.25%. He couched the move as part of an effort to restrain state government spending. The House budget, due out Friday, will be lower than the current spending plan of $118.6 billion, he said.

House Speaker Perez has eye on projected shortfalls

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida GOP lawmakers frequently tout the state's fiscal strength, especially compared to other states with large shortfalls or trenchant pension problems. New York's budget, for instance, is $237 billion, more than double Florida's budget, while having fewer people than Florida.

But for Perez, that's not enough.

He wants to restrain spending at the state level in the face of projected shortfalls in two years. A three-year budget outlook approved by lawmakers in September projects a $2.1 billion surplus for the upcoming fiscal year, but if spending continues at current rates, shortfalls of $2.8 billion and nearly $7 billion in the following years.

"We have forgotten a fundamental truth: This money isn't ours. Tax dollars don't belong to the government. They belong to the people," said Perez, an attorney.

The proposal is one part of a budget process, and its inclusion in the final spending plan passed by lawmakers isn't certain. The Senate will produce and pass its own budget in the coming weeks, setting up negotiations between the chambers on a final spending plan and tax cut bill for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, is open to working on the plan with Perez.

"The President has tremendous respect for the Speaker and looks forward to partnering with the House on a significant, broad-based tax relief package to make sure Florida families can keep more of the money they earn," said Katie Betta, Albritton's spokeswoman.

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said she wants to see more specifics on the plan.

"We need to hear more details about where he plans to make up this $5 billion in revenue that we're cutting," Driskell said. "We have real programs that need funding and we just don't have the details and information to know if this is going to be a good thing."

Sales tax cut could conflict with DeSantis dream to ditch property tax

Moreover, the reduction in sales tax could cut against a push from Gov. Ron DeSantis to completely eliminate property taxes.

In recent months DeSantis has said he'd back removing all property taxes, but no concrete plan currently exists to do so.

In remarks in Brevard County on Tuesday, however, DeSantis suggested tourists be taxed instead of Florida residents as a means to eliminate property taxes, although he didn't specifically mention sales taxes.

"If you're going to tax, I don't want you taxing Florida residents' property," DeSantis said. "Tax the tourists. Tax some of the foreigners.

"You have the ability in some of those areas that draw a lot of people to shift the tax burden away from your own people to people that are not residents of Florida," he went on. "I think that would be a better tax system than constantly having people pay higher property taxes."

Still, DeSantis has also said the state sales tax won't be increased on his watch.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at  grohrer@gannett.com . Follow him on X:  @GrayRohrer .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida sales tax cut coming? House speaker wants to lower rate