Can Gillum Work With the GOP to Increase Cooperate Tax?
October 30th, 2018 by Jake Stofan
One of Andrew Gillum’s first campaign pledges was to raise education spending by $1 billion.
To do so he says he would raise the state’s cooperate tax rate, but the Democratic Candidate is likely to face push back from a Republican Legislature.
One of Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic Gubernatorial candidate in January Andrew Gillum’s first press conferences focused on a promise.
“We can invest $1 billion in rebuilding schools,” Gillum said.
He proposes raising the cooperate tax rate in the state to 7.75% from its current 5.5%.
It’s no surprise that businesses don’t like it.
“The state’s in a great place right now and I think our members are pretty clear that they would like to keep things as is,” said James Miller with the Florida Retail Federation.
Any tax increase is a hard sell for Republicans.
Even if Democrats increase their margins in the Legislature, some Republicans will have to be onboard.
Bob Martinez served as Florida’s 40th Governor.
He was a Republican facing a Democratic House and Senate.
We asked him how he dealt with a Legislature controlled by an opposing party.
“I first started coming up here in 1965 and it was all Democrat and the House and the Senate would fight with the Governor all the same party,” said Martinez. “So it just is a different kind of perhaps debate.”
Florida TaxWatch says if Gillum wants more revenue, he should propose the state start collecting the tax already owed on internet sales.
“A remote sales can be two to three times what an increase of the cooperate income tax could bring and it would be well accepted by the people of Florida,” said TaxWatch President, Dominic Calabro.
If Amendment 5 passes in November, Gillum will have to garner 2/3’s support of the Legislature to raise the cooperate tax, instead of the current 3/5’s.
When asked how Gillum plans to gain Republican support for his operate tax increase his campaign responded with a statement saying, “Mayor Gillum is going to work as Governor with anyone willing to create good jobs, pay better wages, and invest a billion dollars into training Florida’s future workforce. It’s a common-sense investment in growing the most talented state in America.”
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