Tallahassee, Fla — Late Monday evening Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 50, a bill that raises taxes on the average hardworking Floridian in order to give tax breaks to businesses. This bill will cost Florida consumers an estimated 1 billion dollars a year in online sales tax, and is yet another regressive tax that places a higher burden on low income Floridians than anyone else. Furthermore, when amendments like a broad sales tax cut and a small business relief fund were proposed by Democrats to make this bad bill better, they were rejected by Republicans.
“This is a slap in the face to working people and is a clear look into the bait and switch Republicans play with our tax money,” said Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Marcus Dixon. “Under the cloak of darkness, Ron DeSantis signed a massive tax increase on working people; not to improve public education, affordable housing or support families in need, but instead to hand our hard earned money right over to big business. Republicans prioritize businesses over us. They don’t support workers. Never have and never will.”
News Service of Florida: Just before midnight Monday, DeSantis revealed he signed $1 billion tax on consumers
Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly signed into law late Monday a bill that will cost Florida consumers who shop online an estimated $1 billion a year in sales taxes and used the money used to cut business taxes“Governor just signed a bill into law to increase your taxes and give the new revenue of $1 billion to businesses,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, tweeted after the bill signing was announced.Outnumbered Democrats in the Legislature had argued that working Floridians will be hurt by the proposal. The bill is estimated to tax consumers $1 billion a year. The money was first earmarked for the unemployment trust fund, which became depleted because of massive job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses pay taxes that go into the trust fund and, without another source of money, would have faced higher taxes to replenish the fund.
###
“Ron Desantis – Caricature” by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
