Florida legislators are completing work on a tax cut package that, based on preliminary figures, is expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars less than the package originally envisioned by Tallahassee's majority Republicans.
Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the tax cut plan.
The highlight is a reduction in cell phone and pay television taxes on the order of around a dollar a month per family, well below the $43 a year reduction proposed by Gov. Rick Scott.
"We don't take as big a bite, as substantial a bite, as impactful a bite, in some cases, as we should," acknowledged Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Niceville).
As the relatively meager tax cut package shuttles toward final passage next week, some Senate Republicans are openly accusing their House counterparts of forcing the shaved cuts by voting against Medicaid expansion.
The expansion proposal, which the House's Republican leaders say would have opened the door to runaway health care spending, would have sent Florida billions of dollars in federal funding to help pad the state's budget and, potentially, enable passage of the original tax cut package.
"We all want tax cuts, not just corporations, not just small businesses, but the average ma and pa who are trying to put food on the family," said Rep. Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg). "They want tax cut savings, too. So, there are a lot of folks to blame for that."