The old saying holds that you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. But a Democrat posturing as being in favor of tax cuts fools absolutely no one.
As Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried may be learning.
Fried, the only elected Democrat in Florida’s Cabinet, recently tried to slam Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a tax-hiker.
“Minutes before midnight, @GovRonDeSantis signed a bill into law which raises your taxes by a billion dollars,” Fried tweeted Tuesday morning in reference to a new measure that DeSantis signed on Monday night.
In a video released Tuesday, Fried also complained that “Last night, he took a billion dollars from you, and no one was watching.”
“I’m pissed and you should be pissed too,” she added.
DeSantis required internet retailers located outside the state to collect and pay, to the state, sales taxes that would be owed as with regular transactions if they operated as brick-and-mortar stores within Florida.
In Florida, for example, as the self-help legal website Nolo.com explains, “The burden was on the customer rather than the seller to pay the relevant tax. In that case, the tax generally is called use tax rather than sales tax – and customers often simply did not pay use tax to the state.”
Nolo.com noted that under a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision, states could trigger the collection mechanism simply by enacting a law mandating that, such as DeSantis just did.
No one can blame Florida residents for not paying. If no one enforces a law, or perhaps if there is no law to enforce, avoiding sending additional money to the government is natural.
But what DeSantis did, as some of the state’s most influential business groups noted, was to advance two things Democrats like Fried always claim they want – more tax revenue and “fairness.”
On the fiscal side, state economists project the new law will raise about $974 million next year, and roughly $1 billion a year after that.
On the philosophical side, business groups were pleased that things balanced out.
“With this measure signed into law, all businesses can compete on a level playing field and continue to support the 2.7 million Floridians who work in the retail industry. Thank you, Gov. DeSantis, for your leadership and for providing meaningful relief to Florida retail businesses,” said Scott Shalley, the president and CEO of the Florida Retail Federation.
Orlando City Commissioner Tony Ortiz, who serves as president of the Florida League of Cities, said, “No longer will out-of-state retailers, who don’t contribute anything to the betterment of our communities, have an unfair advantage over our local businesses who are not only part of our local communities but who have a vested interest in them and their success.”
Fried’s rumored to be weighing a run for governor. If she does and wins, it’s a safe bet to believe she would do nothing to deprive the state government that she would control of the extra $1 billion a year DeSantis just provided.
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