TALLAHASSEE — Legislation is moving in Tallahassee that would open the door for counties to collect a half-cent sales tax to fund their local state college.
While currently tailored to Miami-Dade County, the bill (HB 113) would establish a method where a county could pass an ordinance by voter referendum to levy the tax. If passed, the college could use the revenue for curriculum, teaching tools, maintenance and renovations, new buildings and to buy adjacent property. The money would not be restricted to those uses, but the ordinance would outline how the money could be spent.
The referendum would only require a majority vote for approval, and the tax would expire after five years under a sunset provision.
“What I wanted to make sure of … [is] that this does not become like every other tax in the world — that once a tax becomes a tax it forever is a tax,” said Committee Chairman and bill sponsor Erik Fresen, R-Miami.
The House Education Committee passed the bill 17-1 last week.
The measure is nothing new; an identical bill moved through the House last year but did not become law. The legislation serves essentially as a response to the failed 2008 statewide voter referendum to allow counties to adopt a sales tax to fund their local colleges, Fresen said.
Under the bill, if the half-cent tax were passed by a county, the local state college would get 90 percent of the tax revenue and the local state university, if one exists, would get 10 percent. The State Board of Administration (SBA) would manage the funds.
The bill would not have an immediate impact in Bay County, but it could get the ball rolling for a future sales tax fight.
Gulf Coast State College would benefit from the tax, if one were ever implemented locally. The school’s president, though, said he didn’t see that happening.
“I just don’t believe the climate is right to bring that kind of tax in,” said Jim Kerley. “Maybe in the future that should be discussed, but at this particular point I don’t think so.”
Kerley said he and the other presidents of Florida’s 28 state colleges discussed the measure at a meeting last week.
The bill must still pass through the House Appropriations Committee before it goes to the floor.
Senate companion legislation (SB 66) also passed through a committee last week. That bill has three more committee stops before it heads to the Senate floor.