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Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum brought Steve Forbes to Tampa Thursday to kick off a multi-week rollout of his job creation agenda.
Running for the Republican nomination for governor, McCollum was flanked by Forbes and former St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker to announce a broad-ranging plan to cut taxes, reduce red tape, diversify the state's economy and transform the state's workforce.
“Right now we're hurting,” McCollum said on the campus of the University of Tampa. “We all know we need to diversify.”
A major component announced Thursday was to cut the corporate income tax from 5.5% to 4.5% and to eliminate the corporate income tax for qualified small businesses — startups or those moving to Florida — for the first 10 years.
“That should be a big attractor for Florida,” he said.
The overarching themes in the plan reflect Forbes' free market, limited government convictions. But details were skimpy on Thursday — and the details were not posted on McCollum's web site as of late in the day.
Other components of the tax reduction and regulation reform plan include:
• Reforming the state's property tax system;
• Providing sales tax exemptions for certain high-tech businesses;
• Providing tax credits for research and development; and
• Expanding the manufacturing machinery and equipment tax exemptions.
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