Florida’s House and Senate still had not reached a compromise on the state’s $52-billion-plus budget as of 6 p.m. on Friday. With a constitutionally mandated three-day “cooling off” period required before a budget vote, neither chamber appears likely to end the session on time.

Late Friday, Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, told his fellow senators to go home for the weekend, get some rest, and plan to be back in Tallahassee on Sunday evening in preparation for an early start on Monday.

The budget impasse between Florida House and Senate leaders had seemed to have some potential for resolution late Thursday evening. With a $475-million offer on the table, Senate President King said he hoped that House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, would meet the charge. The $475-million gap was down from an original $982 million of new dollars first proposed by the Senate.

After a late-night Appropriations Committee meeting in the House that ended at nearly 10 p.m. Thursday, House leaders were tight-lipped about where they would find $475 million in new revenue without raising taxes.

To read a complete summary of Thursday’s legislative budget negotiations, please click here.

Early Friday morning, the House Finance and Taxation Committee met to discuss a proposed bill to create a tax amnesty program. The bill was viewed as a move by the House to bridge the $475-million sticking point.

PCB FT 03-05 creates an amnesty program for four months, beginning July 1, 2003, and ending on Oct. 31, 2003, for taxpayers subject to taxes administered by the Florida Department of Revenue (DOR). Eligible taxpayers who pay delinquent taxes will not have to pay penalties, will not be subject to criminal prosecution, and will receive an interest waiver of 25 percent or 50 percent, depending on the circumstances. The bill also does the following:

• Increases the interest rate on tax delinquencies from the prime rate to prime plus 4 percentage points.
  
• Allows taxpayers under audit, inquiry, examination or civil investigation by the DOR to participate.
  
• Raises an estimated $66.7 million in FY 03-04 with an operational impact on the DOR of $385,000.

An amendment was also added to the bill that would allow a taxpayer to choose between participating in the Certified Audit Program or being eligible for interest and penalty compromises under the amnesty program. In other words, the taxpayer would have to pick one program and not receive compromises under both.

However, as of late Friday, the Senate made no move to draft a companion bill. 

The bill and analysis are not available electronically on the state’s Web site, but the DOR has provided a PDF version to the FICPA’s State Tax Section for review.

In other developments Friday, a follow-up or “glitch” bill to fix errors in last year’s Uniform Principal and Interest Act (UPIA) was passed unanimously by the Florida House. SB 2450 is now on its way to the desk of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for his signature. The FICPA, the Florida Bankers Association and The Florida Bar’s Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section all supported the bill.

The FICPA’s Governmental Affairs staff will continue to keep you posted as the last week of session unfolds.