TALLAHASSEE, Florida – House Speaker Daniel Perez (R-Miami) announced a proposal to permanently slash Florida’s sales tax from 6% to 5.25%, marking what he called the largest tax cut in the state’s history.
The initiative, revealed in a speech to the House Chamber on Wednesday, is designed to deliver nearly $5 billion in annual savings to Floridians, positioning Florida as the only state in the nation to enact such a permanent reduction.
“In the past, this House has justifiably called out local governments for misspending and mismanagement. We have taken special districts to task for misusing public money. We have railed against the excesses of the Federal government. But we have been reluctant to turn our gaze on ourselves and hold state government to those same standards,” Perez said in his speech.
“As I shared with you both at Organization Session and on Opening Day, State government has a spending problem. More importantly, we have a recurring spending problem.
Although member projects gain the most attention because of the veto process, the truth is that member projects are non-recurring appropriations. They are irrelevant and incidental to the true growth of the budget.
Our problem is not that we buy too many non-recurring projects, it is that we cannot resist spending every single dime of recurring revenue. We pile more money on programs that can’t even manage to spend the money they already have. The beneficiaries of the state budget are the endless string of lobbyists and vendors who always have some shiny new thing for the state to buy that won’t actually improve the lives of Floridians.
We have forgotten a fundamental truth – this money isn’t ours. Tax dollars don’t belong to the government, they belong to the people.”
Critics of the proposal argue that Florida’s sales tax captures revenue from visiting tourists thereby lessening the burden on Florida residents.
While others would like to see an increase in Florida’s Homestead Exemption to lower property taxes, thereby targeting only residents as the beneficiaries of a tax cut.
Florida’s Sales Tax History
- 1949: Florida introduces its sales tax on February 1 at a rate of 3%, signed by Governor Fuller Warren as a temporary measure to address a $30 million budget shortfall. It becomes permanent by year-end.
- 1968: Rate increases to 4% under Governor Claude Kirk to fund education and infrastructure amid population growth.
- 1982: Rate rises to 5% under Governor Bob Graham.
- 1987: Governor Bob Martinez briefly extends the tax to services (e.g., legal and advertising fees), but it’s repealed after public opposition.
- 1988: Rate jumps to 6% on February 1 under Governor Martinez, where it has remained.
