Senate will renew push to end major insurance industry tax break
Florida's insurance industry has a political fight on its hands in the upcoming legislative session.
Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, will renew his effort to eliminate an industry sacred cow: a 15 percent tax credit on the salaries insurance companies pay to full-time employees in Florida.
With Negron as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate four years ago voted to repeal the 30-year-old tax break and redirect the proceeds to lower car registration fees, which a few years earlier had risen dramatically to close a budget gap in 2009.
The insurance industry, a major donor to the Republican Party, said the repeal of the 1987 tax credit would drive jobs out of state. The House flatly rejected the Senate's idea and kept the tax credit on the books, where Negron is again targeting it for elimination. The Senate estimates that wiping out the tax credit is worth about $300 million a year in tax savings.
Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2017/01/senate-will-renew-push-to-kill-insurance-industry-sacred-cow.html