State Coffer Flush with Cash

The $5k sales tax holiday, being floated by Florida Republican Legislators, sounds great on the surface. Its our money, and we certainly appreciate the opportunity to have some of it back, but it has one little catch. You have to spend money to receive the tax credit. Its a great idea in supply side economics, spend money to make more money (for the state of Florida). Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in tax relief and supply side-economics but we are all facing a homeowners insurance crisis in this state, with the failing Citizens Insurance Group. The estimated $500 million proposed for this sales tax holiday would go a long way to prop up this ailing insurance group. In fact, last year while facing the forecast of massive insurance premium increases for all property owners of the state, Tom Gallagher, the Chief Financial Officer for the state of Florida, requested the Legislature assist homeowners with the more than $800 million in hurricane related sales tax revenue collected in 2004 to offset the substantial deficit that was apparent with the Citizens Insurance. Unfortunately, Mr. Gallagher did not have a legislative sponsor to carry this proposal to fruition last year. Hindsight is never a good policy but that $800 million in sales tax revenue from 2004 would have certainly eased the pain that all homeowners will feel over the upcoming months when their homeowners insurance comes up for renewal this year, or worse yet, when they receive a cancellation notice. State coffers are expected to grow by more than $3.2 billion in the coming budget year, which will fueled by the state's strong economy, a booming housing market and the recovery and rebuilding from two devastating hurricane seasons in 2005 so hopefully the state Legislature will strongly consider Tom Gallagher's proposal from last year. Governor Jeb Bush cited an aggressive 2006 agenda for himself, pledging to fix the insurance industry in our state, before leaving office next year, and this $500m would go along way to help smooth that path. We can only hope our Legislature, with Governor Bush's assistance, begin immediately to correct the problems we all are enduring with the insurance crisis in this state ,with billions in cash pouring into the state coffers this year. As it has been stated, we are flush with cash in the state government this year, now lets put it to good use by fixing the insurance crisis.