In a series of recent stump speeches, Gov. Rick Scott has emphasized that his goals remain simple: Keep down the cost of living, create jobs and improve education.
Scott's agenda for 2012 includes a smattering of additional tax cuts and a continued drive to eliminate regulations that could be holding back growth in a state that is dealing with 10.6 percent unemployment.
But now there's a big tax hike on the horizon that could hamper his plans.
For two years, state lawmakers have pushed back significant hikes in the state's unemployment compensation taxes.These are the taxes that are used to help pay benefits to the nearly 1 million people out of work.
But preliminary figures released Thursday show the minimum tax rate for employers is expected to jump from $72.10 per employee to more than $170 per employee. The maximum rate is also expected to rise from $378 to $459 per employee.
"This is a big deal," said David Hart, executive vice president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. "The last thing we ought to be doing is putting additional burdens on employers."
Here's the full story about the tax hike.
So far neither Scott nor the Republican-controlled Legislature has talked much about this. Even the Chamber itself gave the issue only a brief mention in its 2012 list of priorities.
But Hart himself says discussions are already underway to try to convince state lawmakers that something needs to be done to "soften the burden."
It's not as if this is surprising since lawmakers nearly two years ago delayed another big tax hike. But back then the hope was that the economy would have turned around enough by 2012 so that employers could afford the higher costs.
One of the ways the state could ease the burden on employers is by rolling back some of the planned tax increases, but the downside is that it extends the amount of time it will take the state to pay back the federal government.
Right now the state owes $1.7 billion in loans that were used to keep the unemployment compensation trust fund solvent since 2009.
This year business owners paid a special assessment to cover interest that is now owed on the outstanding balance. But there's an additional penalty if the state does not promptly repay the federal government: The loss of federal tax credits. (Right now employers get a tax credit for their state unemployment taxes that is deducted from federal taxes they owe.)
Scott, who rolls out his 2012 budget proposal in early December, could offer to have the state to pay the interest charges in the coming year if the big tax hikes are delayed yet again.
But the problem for the governor is he is dealing with a projected budget shortfall that ranges - depending on who you ask - from $1.2 billion to $2 billion.
The question for the governor and the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature is whether or not the unemployment compensation tax hike rises to the level that it trumps other budget and tax considerations.
Would Scott, for example, go along with helping stall the unemployment tax hike which will affect nearly 460,000 businesses across the state in exchange for backing off his push for another small cut in the corporate income tax that he has vowed to eliminate in seven years?
Or does Scott come up with enough cuts to accommodate the shortfall, the tax cuts he has already proposed, as well as take care of unemployment tax hike?
Mark your calendars: On Dec. 8 we should know the answer.
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