Name: Florida GOP choosing tax breaks for three-martini lunches over better health care | Commentary
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Florida GOP choosing tax breaks for three-martini lunches over better health care | Commentary

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AdvertisementBy Orlando SentinelApr 18, 2021 at 9:00 amEver heard of a&nbsp;“three-martini lunch tax break?” If you haven’t, you need to read Gray Rohrer’s April 14 story (”Florida Senate eyes corporate tax cuts”) in the Orlando Sentinel about the Florida Senate’s plan to cut&nbsp;corporate taxes while reducing spending on&nbsp;our hospitals and universities. This&nbsp;story should serve as yet another wake-up call to every Florida taxpayer.&nbsp;As Florida’s&nbsp;former elected chief financial officer, I focused on the financial health of our state, and policies&nbsp;supporting job growth, and especially our small businesses which employ&nbsp;millions of Floridians. AdvertisementMost Florida&nbsp;families are working hard, helping their kids navigate school during a pandemic&nbsp;and paying their monthly bills. Meanwhile, the Republican majority in the&nbsp;Legislature is in Tallahassee feverishly scheming to find&nbsp;ways to cut funding&nbsp;for things we all rely on, like hospitals, access to health care and schools,&nbsp;so they can keep padding the pockets of their corporate donors. That’s not&nbsp;right. They know it. And we know it. But they will keep&nbsp;at it unless we hold&nbsp;them accountable. AdvertisementSo, let’s see&nbsp;what our “representatives” are doing up there in Tallahassee. And what they’re&nbsp;not doing. For starters,&nbsp;they’re refusing to expand Medicaid to cover 800,000 uninsured Floridians, even&nbsp;in the midst of a pandemic. This, despite the fact that under President Biden’s&nbsp;American Rescue Plan, if we expanded Medicaid&nbsp;now, the federal government would&nbsp;actually pay Florida to do the right thing. Not only would covering all these&nbsp;uninsured Floridians save lives, it would save the state a projected $3.5&nbsp;billion as well. As a finance professional,&nbsp;I think that’s a good return on&nbsp;investment.WeeklyGet latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. &gt; Now, let’s talk&nbsp;about that so-called “three martini lunch tax break.” This proposal would make&nbsp;it so when big corporate CEOs meet at the club for lunch, and maybe a few&nbsp;martinis, instead of only being able to write off 50% of&nbsp;their meal they could&nbsp;write off 100%. According to estimates, that would add up to more than $60&nbsp;million of our tax dollars over a three-year period. If you ask me, those CEOs&nbsp;can afford to buy their own lunches and their&nbsp;own martinis — and that $60&nbsp;million could be used to support the education of our children. While Republican&nbsp;politicians would like you to believe they’re looking out for mom and pop&nbsp;businesses, the truth is these tax breaks would only apply to the top 1% of Florida corporations. The biggest of the&nbsp;big. On top of that,&nbsp;Florida already has among the lowest corporate tax rates in the country. Let me ask you this:&nbsp;Did you contact your representatives and ask them to take money out of your&nbsp;pocket and put it into the bank accounts of the top 1% of giant&nbsp;corporations? Of course not. You know who did?&nbsp;Lobbyists for these giant&nbsp;corporations. So why shouldn’t the most successful corporations pay their fair&nbsp;share? The Republican&nbsp;legislators and lobbyists hiding out in Tallahassee are counting on us being&nbsp;too busy to notice they’re picking our pockets. That’s why we have to pay&nbsp;attention, speak up and push back. Because our system&nbsp;of government of, by and&nbsp;for the people, only works when we the people — that’s us — remind our&nbsp;elected representatives that we pay their salaries, they work for us and&nbsp;cutting funds to hospitals and schools to put more&nbsp;money in the already fat&nbsp;bank accounts of the biggest corporations is not the job we sent them to&nbsp;Tallahassee to do.AdvertisementAlex Sink is the former chief financial officer for&nbsp;Florida and treasurer for the board of trustees of the Florida State Board of&nbsp;Administration. She made an unsuccessful run for governor in 2010 against Rick Scott. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Orlando SentinelApr 18, 2021 at 9:00 amEver heard of a&nbsp;“three-martini lunch tax break?” If you haven’t, you need to read Gray Rohrer’s April 14 story (”Florida Senate eyes corporate tax cuts”) in the Orlando Sentinel about the Florida Senate’s plan to cut&nbsp;corporate taxes while reducing spending on&nbsp;our hospitals and universities. This&nbsp;story should serve as yet another wake-up call to every Florida taxpayer.&nbsp;As Florida’s&nbsp;former elected chief financial officer, I focused on the financial health of our state, and policies&nbsp;supporting job growth,...

Florida GOP choosing tax breaks for three-martini lunches over better health care | Commentary

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