Fried Labels DeSantis A Billion Dollar Tax-Hiker

Fried Labels DeSantis A Billion Dollar Tax-Hiker

Democrats sounding like Republicans on tax hikes

Javier Manjarres
Javier Manjarres
|
April 20, 2021

After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into SB 50 into law —the online tax sales tax collection measure — Democrats pounced, in particularly Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who cut a campaign video billing DeSantis as a tax-hiker who in the cover of night saddled Floridians with $1 billion dollars in new taxes.

Sounding more like an anti-Tax Republican, Commissioner Fried also mentioned DeSantis’ signing into law the controversial anti-Rioting HB 1 measure during a “huge press conference” in Polk County Florida. Playing loose with the facts, Fried accused DeSantis of taking away the First Amendment right of all Floridians.

“Last night Ron DeSantis raised your taxes by over a billion dollars, and he did it right before midnight with no cameras, no one watching,” said Fried. “Yet earlier that day he was able to hold a huge press conference taking away your first amendment rights.”

A “pissed” Fried also asserted that by DeSantis signing into internet sales tax into law, he “took a billion dollars” away from Floridians, adding that viewers of the video should let the other 22 million Floridians know what the governor did.

President and CEO of the Florida Retail Federation, Scott Shalley,  said in a statement that the law creates a “level playing field” for all businesses.

“The tax cut on business rent is an added bonus,” added Shalley. “With these cost-savings, Florida businesses across all sectors of the economy can reinvest in their community, create jobs and grow their businesses.”

The sponsor of the bill, State Senator Joe Gruters, recently stated that “We’ve created an unfair competitive advantage for foreign players and out-of-state retailers on the backs of our local retailers.”

The measure passed in the Senate by a vote count of  27-12, and in the House, it passed by a 93-24 vote margin.

“Governor just signed a bill into law to increase your taxes and give the new revenue of $1 billion to businesses,” Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando stated the progressive legislator in a tweet.

But while Fried and Rep. Eskamani rail against DeSantis approval of the online sales-tax, and are pushing long-standing political posturing by Republicans that all taxes are bad, the pushback can be perceived as hypocritical considering that Democrats promote tax hikes to benefit the existing government programs. Both Fried and Eskamani are in complete alignment with President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, even raising taxes on “the rich” and on corporations, and the recent COVID-9 Stimulus relief funding.

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Javier Manjarres

Javier Manjarres

Javier Manjarres is a nationally renowned award-winning political journalist and Publisher of Floridianpress.com, Hispolitica.com, shark-tank.com, and Texaspolitics.com He enjoys traveling, playing soccer, mixed martial arts, weight-lifting, swimming, and biking. Javier is also a political consultant and has also authored "BROWN PEOPLE," which is a book about Hispanic Politics. Follow on Twitter: @JavManjarres Email him at Diversenewmedia@gmail.com

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