And they think the media may be a good place to find them. The overarching goal is to keep the education system comfortably afloat while providing property tax relief to citizens of the state. That figure to be a popular goal. However, replacing lost funds with sales tax exemptions "which are determined not to advance or serve a public purpose” is not as innocuous a proposal as it may sound, from a broadcaster’s perspective.
One of the exemptions in the crosshairs is the sale of advertising. The Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission has approved this as part of a multipronged approach to replacing some $9B in funding which will be lost if the property tax cut goes through.
The proposal is in the form of an amendment to the state constitution, and requires approval of 60% of voters this November.
Both broadcasters and retailers plan to combat the measure.
RBR/TVBR observation: This is an issue that crops up from time to time, is usually beaten back and then rises again. According to ANA, it’s the third relatively recent go-around for the issue in Florida, following efforts in 1987 and 2002. Broadcasters will need to fight this aggressively between now and November.
On the plus side, media outlets are in a perfect position to state their case – it is the media, after all; and they only need to convince 40% of the population that an ad tax is a bad idea.
But the 25% property tax cut in the balance makes that a very steep hill to climb. It will be extremely important to demonstrate that the ad tax is in fact a tax on everything, from the soda just bought at a drive through window to the new car one drove up in. We’d get our accountants working up some projected gains and losses that the average citizen can expect and highlight the bad news about an ad tax just as loudly as possible.
