Senate schedules votes on tax reform

Florida legislators hurtled toward possible final passage of a historic, $31.6 billion property tax cut package Thursday morning, just three days into a 10-day special session.
Senate President Ken Pruitt said he has scheduled votes before the end of the day on the handful of bills that would give taxpayers $15.6 billion in tax cuts and another $16 billion through a potential constitutional amendment vote.
The House of Representatives debated until 10 p.m. Wednesday and is scheduled to convene at noon today. If both chambers approve the plan, the session will end early.
Senators said opposition to the plan will likely make it impossible to schedule the constitutional amendment vote on Jan. 29, since such an action requires a three-fourths vote in each chamber under the state constitution. That means the amendment is more likely for the November 2008 general election ballot instead, since that date requires a lower threshhold of approval by the Legislature.
The $15.6 billion in tax cuts would come through mandatory rollbacks and future caps on local governments’ taxing powers, although local governing bodies could override the cuts and caps.
Duval County lawmakers are hoping to amend the plan to lower the threshhold for an override vote by a city council or county board to a two-thirds or three-fourths requirement.

— J. Taylor Rushing/The Times-Union