This article was posted on TBO.Com

By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: March 22, 2009

SEBRING – Should some items be taxed, and others not?

The Florida House of Representatives studied that issue last week to decide whether to levy sales taxes on rent, sports tickets, gym admissions, toll road charges, and hundreds of other goods.

If the exemptions were removed on drugs and groceries, for instance, the state of Florida could collect $4 billion in sales taxes. The state will be more than $6 billion in the hole for fiscal year 2009-10, so the move could fill 60 percent of the budget problem.

But not everyone agrees.

To read the rest of this story, go to: Legislature May Eliminate Sales Tax Exemptions

In an editorial today, the Miami Herald blasts the idea of a 1-cent sales tax hike as regressive. According to the Herald: “As to K-12 funding, legislative leaders have said they will consider everything put on the table. So far they have been lukewarm to: raising the tax on tobacco products; lifting any sales tax exemptions; imposing sales taxes on Internet purchases.”

To read the rest of the editorial, go to: