State lawmakers could slash sales tax, saving Floridians billions

Lawrence Mower, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 26, 2025

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s House speaker said his chamber will recommend cutting the state’s sales tax from 6% to 5.25%, resulting in “the largest state tax cut in the history of Florida.”

In a surprise announcement Wednesday, Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said cutting the state sales tax will save Floridians nearly $5 billion each year.

“This will not be a temporary measure, a stunt or a tax holiday,” Perez told lawmakers. “This will be a permanent, recurring tax reduction.”

Perez said it was a move to make the state more affordable.

“We often talk about how to improve affordability in Florida, and our strategies usually involve spending money on more government programs,” Perez said. “But this year, we’ll try a novel concept and make Florida more affordable by giving the people of Florida their own money.”

Such a move would have to be agreed to by the full House and Senate by the time this year’s session is scheduled to end May 2.

The announcement came as Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed eliminating property taxes, an idea that lawmakers haven’t yet endorsed. DeSantis is also proposing the usual slate of sales tax holidays, including one that would make guns and ammunition tax-free for six weeks.

Cutting sales taxes, which are levied by the state and local governments, would have a direct effect on all Floridians. Florida’s taxes are considered the most regressive in the nation, meaning the lowest-income households pay the greatest proportion of their income in state and local taxes, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

It’s not clear how state lawmakers would afford such a massive cut, however. Lawmakers were warned by state economists in December that they’d have to cut $10 billion in spending over the next three years.

Perez said Wednesday that “state government has a spending problem,” and that the House would propose a budget that was smaller than the prior year’s budget for the first time since the Great Recession.

“Our budget will not only be lower than the governor’s proposed budget, it will also be lower than the budget passed by the Legislature last term,” Perez said.

He also took a dig at “special interests” who will “say the sky is falling” because of the smaller budget.

“The beneficiaries of the state budget are the endless stream of lobbyists and vendors who always have some shiny new thing for the state to buy that won’t actually improve the lives of Floridians,” Perez said.

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