To: Board of Directors, Associated Industries of Florida
Members, Associated Industries of Florida
Members, AIF Corporate Lobbyist Group
Copy
To: Randy Miller,
Senior Executive Vice President
From: Jon L. Shebel, President & Chief Executive Officer
Subject: Contacts With Your State
Senators Imperative on
“Corporate Tax Piggy Back”
Date: April
16, 2002
On March 9, 2002 , President George W. Bush
signed into law the Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002 or
what has commonly been referred to as the “economic stimulus
package.” This federal
legislation is intended to act as a stimulus to the U. S. economy by encouraging
increased capital spending, investment, and the creation of new jobs. Such a broad relief act can only originate at the federal level
and, in part, its full benefits to the business community can only be
realized in each state by and through the acquiescence of their
respective state governments.
A number of states have already decided that they do not intend to
“piggy back” the federal code provided in the economic stimulus
package. This is a
shortsighted decision on the part of these states, depriving their
resident corporations of the benefits of this federal act.
Unfortunately, The Florida Senate is sharing the shortsighted,
anti-business sentiments of these states. However, the Senate’s desire to not piggy back the federal
economic stimulus act has hit a snag. The Senate actually passed a bill during the Regular Session
doing just that, on February 27, providing that state law would piggy
back the federal code. The
House gave the same bill approval on March 14. The bill is now on its way to the Governor for his signature.
Forgetting
the economic benefits of the stimulus package, the Senate claims that
the bill they passed will “cost”
Florida
$272 million in tax dollars
for the 2002-03 fiscal year. The
Senate leadership further claims that the bill they approved in late
February did not intend to, nor should it apply to, piggy backing the
federal tax code signed into law on March 9. This is a somewhat
disingenuous claim, given that the economic stimulus package received
nearly suffocating coverage in the national press for weeks and months
prior to its adoption.
Governor
Jeb Bush and House Speaker Tom Feeney (R-Oviedo) wish to embrace the
federal tax code relief package. Hence,
there is a breakdown between the Senate, the Governor and the House over
this issue. What gives the
Senate remaining leverage on this issue, despite the fact that they
already passed the bill, is that the state budget remains unresolved. The Senate wishes to budget or spend the $272 million in question
in this year’s budget, which presumes that the Governor would actually
agree to veto the federal piggy back legislation. Theoretically, the Legislature and Governor have until
July 1, 2002
to adopt the new state budget. However, it is very likely that for reasons both practical and
political, there will be enormous pressure to get the budget done soon.
Governor
Bush has asked AIF to assist him in communicating to The Florida Senate
just how critical this federal piggy back legislation is to the
Florida
business community.
We
are requesting that AIF members supply us with financial impact/benefit
statements that would illuminate in real dollars to select senators what
it would mean to individual
Florida
companies if this package were
to fail final adoption. There
are two issues under this requested impact statement. In addition to (1) the lost tax benefits, there would be (2) the
burden of keeping two separate “sets of books” for the differing state
and federal tax codes as a result of the de-coupling advocated by the
Senate. Please supply this
information with your company name. If,
for some reasons, you cannot supply the identity of your company with the
requested impact statement, please proceed with supplying the documents
without your corporate identity. We
will hold the correspondence confidential at your request.
In
addition, we strongly encourage you
to contact your state senator individually,
communicating your strongest support for
Florida
adopting the provisions of the
federal economic stimulus package bill.
With the media typically hostile to all things business, it would be
unfair for the business community to leave the Governor and the House
Speaker out there on their own without any support from us. The Senate needs to feel your support in no uncertain terms (see attached phone, fax and e-mail sheet).
Both the financial impact statements and your contacting of your
respective state senator needs to be done as soon as possible.
Please contact Randy Miller or me at (850) 224-7173 if you have any
questions or comments.
Your
financial impact statements can be faxed to: (850) 577–5288
Or they can be mailed to the following:
Mr.
Randy Miller
Associated
Industries of
Florida
Post
Office Box 784
Tallahassee
,
Florida
32302-0784
Or
they can be emailed to: cleonard@aif.com
