Tallahassee — During the June 13, 2025 conference committee meeting of appropriations chairs, House staff presented an offer on a sales-tax package (recorded in the meeting as House Bill 7031) that would eliminate the business-rent tax and create a series of permanent and temporary sales-tax holidays; a county association representative told conferees those changes could reduce local revenue that communities rely on.

Why it matters: Changes to state-level sales taxes and the business-rent tax can affect the base of taxable activity and reduce receipts that local governments rely on to fund transportation, hospitals and other infrastructure — revenues many local option taxes were approved to support by local referendums.

Key elements of the House offer: House staff said the offer contains more than 50 separate provisions. Highlights the House identified included elimination of the business-rent tax (listed on row 2 of the offer sheet), creation of a permanent back-to-school sales-tax holiday lasting the month of August each year (row 3), multiple permanent sales-tax exemptions similar to prior disaster-preparedness holidays (rows 4–12), and a hunting, fishing and camping sales-tax holiday running from early September through the end of the year for certain items (row 13). Vince Aldridge presented the offer on behalf of the House.

Public testimony: Jeff Scala of the Florida Association of Counties (FAC) told the committee FAC has supported reducing the business-rent tax and has advocated that local option sales taxes remain applicable. Scala said many local option taxes were approved by voters via referendum and fund local needs including transportation and hospitals. He asked conferees to “consider retaining this important local resource for all local communities.”

Discussion versus decision: The House presented the multi-provision offer; the Senate later recorded acceptance of the House offers in the meeting record. The conference committee directed staff to make technical and conforming edits after acceptance; the meeting record contains no roll-call vote tally for the acceptance.

Ending: Conferees accepted offers and authorized staff to prepare final text; county officials and local governments will likely monitor final conference language for changes that could affect local revenue streams and sales-tax administration.

Quotes: Jeff Scala, Florida Association of Counties: “I humbly ask that you consider retaining this important local resource for all local communities.”