A proposal to study the effect of fees imposed by credit card companies on sales taxes appears to have doomed a large chunk of the Legislature's budget.
Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $56.7 million in legislative support services funding. It's funding he hasn't vetoed before in five previous budgets.
The money pays for a variety of functions for the Legislature — information technology for the House and Senate, the lobbyist registration office, joint committees and the Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR), staffed by economists who make revenue forecasts for the state budget that are used by lawmakers to craft a spending plan each year. EDR also conducts numerous studies and produces reports about various state programs and aspects of the economy to aid lawmakers.
But this year the funding came with language directing EDR to "conduct a study and present policy options relating to prohibiting the collection of interchange fees on sales taxes." The office was to issue a report to lawmakers by Dec. 1.
"The report must address the impacts including, but not limited to, technological, financial, and economic impacts on merchants, processors, payment card networks, acquiring banks, issuers and consumers," the budget language stated.
The issue is a fight between credit card companies and retailers over the fees charged for processing the sales tax portion of a purchase. The swipe fees are paid by retailers, which want them stopped, but credit card companies argue they're necessary.
Lawmakers have declined to pass bills aimed at eliminating the fees in recent years, but the fight over the fees is far from over.
Meanwhile, it's unclear how the Legislature will fund the services lawmakers depend on to do their jobs.
"I don't have a comment from the President at this time," Senate President Kathleen Passidomo's spokesperson, Katie Betta, wrote in an email. "We are evaluating the impact of the veto."
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