AIF recognizes that executing a successful comprehensive economic development strategy for Florida requires making policy reforms on numerous fronts. AIF supports the following reforms that will continue to position Florida as the number one state in which to do business.
Building on the momentum of prior legislative sessions in which the Legislature reduced the number of Florida businesses paying the corporate income tax, AIF SUPPORTS continuing to phase out the corporate income tax. Also, in order to encourage the growth of Florida’s manufacturing industry, attract new businesses to the state and create jobs for Floridians, AIF SUPPORTS permanently eliminating the sales tax on manufacturing machinery and equipment.
Integrated Resorts would attract visitors interested in experiencing a variety of amenities including: convention and meeting space, high-end retail, fine dining, spas, entertainment venues, gaming facilities, hotel and residential towers, pools and outdoor recreation facilities. While gaming facilities are a component of these complexes, they would consume a small portion of the resort’s overall footprint.
AIF SUPPORTS:These facilities will draw out-of-state and international tourists that will add millions of dollars to our state’s economy and bolster existing businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Before any proposal is approved on integrated resorts, AIF strongly encourages the Legislature to consider their effect on the state’s pari-mutuel industry. These long-standing members of the Florida business community provide tens of thousands of jobs around the state. Pari-mutuels should be given the ability to compete in order to provide the best entertainment value possible, including Class III gaming, as long as the local county or municipality approves such action.
AIF SUPPORTS the Legislature keeping the Pari-mutuel industry and its impact on Florida’s economy in focus when considering integrated resorts or other expanded gambling activities.
To promote greater transparency in government, protect due process rights and to acknowledge the “digital divide,” AIF SUPPORTS requirements that public notices be printed in local newspapers as defined by Chapter 50, Florida Statutes, as well as displayed on the Internet.
AIF recognizes that immigration reform is an important issue for our state, but contends it should be dealt with at the federal level. AIF OPPOSES efforts to mandate the use of the E-Verify system by employers.
Mandating E-Verify would have a negative effect on employers, especially those small business owners who do not have full-fledged human resource departments. Arizona style immigration laws have the real potential to tarnish Florida’s reputation as a global trade hub. Fears of racial profiling could make it harder for businesses to recruit employees and could harm Florida’s tourism industry.
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