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Senate Preps Tax Cut Package For Vote

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - The Senate has finalized an approximately $400 million tax-cut package which they'll vote on early next week, the final week of the special legislative session.

Senate Finance and Tax Chairwoman Dorothy Hukill said she doesn't expect major changes when it comes back before the Senate. The Senate package would replace a tax-cut proposal from the House.

"There is still plenty of time next week to hear this bill and send it over there," Hukill said after the Senate met Friday. "I'm pretty confident they're in agreement."

The Senate is scheduled to convene again at 9 a.m. Monday. Senators did not raise serious objections to the package Friday.

The Senate proposal is dominated by a 1.73 percentage-point reduction in the communications-services tax on cell-phone and cable TV bills, which is projected to provide a $20.67 a year savings for people paying $100 a month for service.

The package also would offer a number of other tax breaks, including tax exemptions on certain agricultural uses, gun-club memberships, school extracurricular fundraisers and aviation fuel for certain flight-training academies.

The proposal also would lift sales taxes on college textbooks for a year and would provide a 10-day sales-tax holiday in August on clothing under $100, school supplies that cost $15 or less and the first $750 of personal computers purchased for non-commercial use.

The House proposed a package that would have provided $273.2 million in savings for the upcoming fiscal year, with the number growing to $436 million the following year.

Both packages are stripped down from a $690 million package that the House pushed during this spring's regular legislative session and a $673 million proposal by Gov. Rick Scott. Lawmakers said they needed to reduce the proposed tax cuts to help cover health-care costs in the budget.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

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