One percent sales tax proposals for schools failing

By James Kirley
Tuesday, April 7, 2009

TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers sponsoring bills to increase statewide sales tax 1 percent to fund public education in Florida report their efforts are dying in committee, even while a survey released Tuesday reported the proposal enjoys broad public support.

"I can't say it's dead, but it's definitely dormant," state Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, sponsor of House Bill 731, said in a phone interview from Tallahassee. Bullard said his bill will die for lack of support in about one week if it does not get a hearing by the House Finance and Tax Council.

"Right now, it's up to the House Republican leadership where they want to take it," Bullard said.

State Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Delray Beach, is sponsoring a companion bill. Deutch could not be reached Tuesday, but office staff confirmed his bill does not have a hearing scheduled in the Senate's Finance and Tax Committee and will die without it. ...

On Tuesday, the FEA released results of a survey of 800 Florida voters. Done by Hamilton Campaigns of Washington, D.C., and Fernandina Beach, it shows 50 percent of respondents "strongly favor" a three-year, one-cent increase of sales tax if revenues were invested exclusively in Florida public education. Another 22 percent said they "somewhat favor" such a tax, according to the survey.

"Floridians are understandably worried about the impact of continued budget cuts on public education," FEA President Andy Ford said in a prepared statement. "Further damage to the already battered budgets of public schools at all levels threatens to halt the progress Florida has made on increasing student achievement." ...
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