[Daily Caller] The Democratic nominee for governor in Florida who ran a primary campaign claiming he was the only "true progressive" in the race is proposing a 40 percent hike in the state's corporate taxes, and is selling the idea in-part by comparing his proposed tax rates to California, one of the highest states for corporate taxation in the nation."By adjusting our state corporate tax level to a modest 7.75%, which allows our richest corporations to receive a tax cut and keeps our corporate tax rate more than 1% lower than California, we'll be able to recoup at least $1 billion and put it where we need it most ‐ investing in our future," the Gillum campaign website says.
Florida's current top marginal corporate tax rate is 5.5 percent, half-a-point lower than neighboring Georgia, and a full point lower than Alabama, according to data compiled at the Tax Foundation.
Republicans are already highlighting the proposal as a stark difference between Gillum and the Republican nominee, Rep. Ron DeSantis.
A recent report from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune produced a long list of civic and business entities as well as former politicians saying the issue was certain to create on of the bigger clashes in the remainder of the campaign.
"National headquarters of companies in this state are focused on this like a laser beam," Tom Feeney, a former Republican Florida House speaker and president of Associated Industries of Florida, told the paper. Feeney's industry group represents some of the biggest companies in the state.