Proposed Committee Bill WMC 19-02 – Relating to Taxation

On Thursday, April 11, PCB WMC 19-02, sponsored and heard by the House Ways and Means Committee, was reported favorably with 14 yeas and 2 nays. AIF’s Senior Vice President of State and Federal Affairs, Brewster Bevis, stood in support of this legislation.

The bill provides for several tax reductions and other tax-related modifications designed to directly impact both families and businesses. Specifically, this bill provides:

• A reduction in the tax rate for commercial property rentals from 5.7% to 5.35%,
• A three-day “back-to-school” holiday for certain clothing, school supplies, and personal computers, and
• A seven-day “disaster preparedness” holiday for specified disaster preparedness items. Regarding property taxes, the bill includes the following:
• The timing of payments to local governments in fiscally constrained counties and Monroe County to offset property tax refunds granted to homeowners due to hurricanes in 2016 and 2017 would be slightly delayed in fiscal year 2019-20 to allow for the related state appropriation to be based on actual data, instead of an estimate.

AIF supports legislative actions that reduce taxes on businesses which allows further growth and employment opportunities.