TALLAHASSEE --- The House passed a tax cut bill Thursday aimed at saving money for campers, gun owners and drinkers of American-made beer.
The House voted 105-2 on the plan (HB 7031), which drew some criticism for lifting sales taxes for the next fiscal year on firearm accessories, including holsters, magazines, muzzle devices, sights and suppressors.
Ways & Means Committee Chairman Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, said the inclusion of gun accessories is tied to the 2024 measure approved by voters that enshrined the right to hunt and fish into the state constitution.
“Obviously, those are activities that the citizens of our state engage in, and as a component of that in our sales tax holiday we wanted to include the accessories that go along with exercising that constitutional right,” Duggan said.
Parkland Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, who voted against the bill along with House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, questioned the provision she said supports “the purchase of unlimited fire accessories, unlimited ammunition, unlimited guns.”
“We also have other rights that we have in this country, such as the right to petition,” Hunschofsky said. “I would suggest that maybe making it more accessible for Floridians to go and vote, more accessible for Floridians to have initiatives on the ballot and have their voices heard, would be better uses of tax dollars supporting people's rights.”
The Senate approved its tax proposal (SB 7046) on Monday. That measure contains some similar provisions but also has key differences, which will have to be negotiated between the chambers before the session is slated to end March 13.
The House plan would revive the hunting, fishing and camping sales tax “holiday” period created last year to run this year from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31. During that period, sales taxes would be lifted on select camping and fishing gear, including tents priced under $200 and fishing rods priced at $75 or less, along with firearms, ammunition, bows and crossbows.
The Senate plan has the holiday going from Sept. 7 to the end of the year.
The House proposal also moves the back-to-school sales tax “holiday” to July 20 through August 20 rather than for all of August, as was set into state law last year.
The measure also lifts some taxes for the full fiscal year on American-made beer, exempts some property being leased for Space Florida projects, and reduces both the pari-mutuel tax on cardrooms and the tax on slot machine revenue.
Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani supported the part of the bill that doesn’t apply new federal changes to the state’s corporate income tax from President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act he signed last year.
“There's always so much pressure for us to go along with some of these federal programs and initiatives,” Eskamani said. “But we have to choose our state. We have to choose the responsibility of the fiscal security of our state.”
Duggan noted that to “piggyback” on the federal language could cost the state up to $3.5 billion a year in revenue and “hamstring” future lawmakers.
While fiscal impacts of parts of the House and Senate packages have yet to be estimated, the House package is projected to cut state and local revenue by $153.9 million in the next fiscal year.
The Senate package is projected to cut revenue by $55.7 million.
In addition to the hunting and fishing “holiday,” the Senate proposal would lift taxes for three years on tickets to Association of Tennis Professionals’ ATP Masters 1000 tournaments or any Women’s Tennis Association’s WTA 1000 tournaments.
The measure also shifts where at least $50 million is provided annually to mostly rural “fiscally restrained” counties. Instead of coming from declining direct-to-home satellite taxes the money would come directly from state sales and use taxes.
The Senate plan also expands the number of charter schools that can share in the distribution of school taxes collected from a voter-approved property tax levy, requires real estate listings to post estimated property taxes, and would prevent a reassessment homestead property taxes when a home is bequeathed to a direct descendant.
