CORPORATE TAX: Gov. Charlie Crist wants to lower the business tax from 5.4 percent to 4 percent. Business leaders say that's a good start, but more can be done.
UNEMPLOYMENT TAX: Under a deal struck by Republican legislative leaders and leading business groups, lawmakers hope to delay most of the pain for two years.
Amid soaring unemployment, the state was forced to borrow $1.1 billion from the federal government to keep jobless benefits flowing. If the Legislature does nothing, the minimum rate for unemployment insurance will jump from $8.40 per employee to $100.30.
PCB 10-01, a bill by Rep. Jennifer Carroll, R-Jacksonville, would lower the taxable wage base from $8,500 to $7,000 for two years. It would also freeze a trigger point in the unemployment fund that automatically switches on increases. Under the plan, the minimum rate would rise to $25.20 per employee this year and $53.90 next. In 2012 it would jump to $192.95.
"Economic theory and empirical research increasingly point toward considerable gains in job formation, capital investment and long-term economic growth from formulas that place greater weight on sales and less or no weight on property or payroll in the state," according to TaxWatch.
"Florida currently faces a competitive disadvantage compared to an expanding number of states that have adopted the single-sales factor."
MANUFACTURING: The "Jobs for Florida" plan in Senate Bill Draft 4-01009A would expand for two years the current sales tax exemption for machinery and equipment by exempting existing manufacturing and spaceport business from having to show a minimum 10 percent increase in their productive output.
DYNAMIC MODELING: GOP House leaders are promoting a new framework that would lower taxes on goods and services if it can be demonstrated that such reductions would improve Florida's competitiveness in the marketplace and drive higher sales.