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Opposition sinks proposed bottled-water tax

Tribune file photo by JIM REED (2008)

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 20, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - A proposed tax on bottled water sank in a House tax council on Monday, signaling its demise this legislative session.

The House Finance and Tax Council voted down a bill amendment to apply the state's 6-cent sales tax to bottled water.

"Water is an incredibly valuable resource in Florida; we have shortfalls all the time," said Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, who tried to attach the amendment to a wide-ranging committee bill to make changes to the tax code.

"We are allowing a commercial business to take from our natural resources, and then force onto taxpayers the cost of alternative water supplies, and yet we're refusing to tax either the product or the taking of it from the ground," he argued. "This [tax] could be used to help us continue to develop water supplies in this state."

Randolph's proposal was a final effort to resurrect a bill from freshman Democratic Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda of Tallahassee, which the House tax panel never granted a hearing or the benefit of a staff analysis. A similar proposal from Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, likewise stalled.

The water-tax concept first gained attention in February when a version appeared in Gov. Charlie Crist's budget plan for 2009-2010. Crist proposed applying a severance tax to the extraction of water by commercial water-bottlers, raising more than $50 million. Environmentalists welcomed the idea, but the beverage industry lobbied strongly against all of the water-tax proposals this spring.

Monday, Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, proposed applying the tax only to water purchases up to 1 gallon, in an effort to hold harmless people who buy larger volumes out of necessity. That proposal failed as well.

"I just think it's wrong to tax water," said Finance and Tax Chairwoman Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Ft. Lauderdale. "Water is a necessity of life, and I don't care what size bottle it comes in."

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