Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

House Speaker Daniel Perez wants Florida to become the only state in the nation to permanently reduce its sales tax, proposing a 0.75% cut on Wednesday to bring the state sales tax from its current 6% to 5.25%. 

“This will not be a temporary measure, a stunt or a tax holiday. This will be a permanent, recurring tax reduction,” Perez said.

Perez said it would be the most significant tax cut in state history, projecting that Floridians would save $5 billion annually. 

“We have forgotten a fundamental truth — this money isn’t ours. Tax dollars don’t belong to the government, they belong to the people,” Perez said. 

He noted that while the Legislature in recent history has “justifiably called out local governments for misspending and mismanagement,” lawmakers “have been reluctant to turn our gaze on ourselves and hold state government to those same standards.” 

Pointedly, he said the state has a spending problem.

“More importantly, we have a recurring spending problem,” Perez added, noting that while member projects — often referred to as budget turkeys — “gain the most attention” because of vetoes, they don’t impact the state’s overall budget growth. He called such projects “irrelevant and incidental” to the state’s overall budget process in the long term. 

Perez applauded the work of the Subcommittee Chairs to “find real savings” and said the results will be published Friday in the proposed House General Appropriations Act, which he said will likewise be historic.

“Our budget will not only be lower than the Governor’s proposed budget, it will also be lower than the budget passed by the Legislature last term. For the first time since the Great Recession, we will roll out a budget that actually spends less money than we did in the prior fiscal year,” Perez said. 

Read more on Florida Politics.

Evening Reads

—“Here’s what Mike Waltz won’t tell you” via Chris Cillizza of So What?

—”Here are the attack plans that Donald Trump’s advisers shared on Signal” via Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris of The Atlantic

—”The Atlantic editor who broke ‘Signalgate’ did nothing wrong. He could be prosecuted anyway.” via Mark Rasch of SLATE

—”How the Signal transcript undermines key Trump administration claims” via Aaron Blake of The Washington Post

—”Hegseth’s leak would have warned the enemy. The White House is using semantics to obscure that.” via David E. Sanger of The New York Times

—”Corporate America’s euphoria over Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ is giving way to distress” via Nick Timiraos, Alex Leary and Chip Cutter of The Wall Street Journal

—”‘Is Waltz Jonah from Veep?’: Team Trump fumes over its most idiotic scandal yet.” via Asawin Suebsaeng, Ryan Bort and Nikki McCann Ramirez of Rolling Stone

—”Florida bill opens door to firing squads, lethal gas for executions” via Romy Ellenbogen of the Tampa Bay Times

—”Sheriff’s office: ICE has deportation orders for 10,000 people in Orange County” via Stephen Hudak of the Orlando Sentinel

—”Say hello to FSU Health” via Christine Sexton of the Florida Phoenix

—”TMH calls for community action as Mayor, City Manager address ‘secret meetings’ backlash” via William L. Hatfield and Elena Barrera of the Tallahassee Democrat

Quote of the Day

“We have forgotten a fundamental truth – this money isn’t ours. Tax dollars don’t belong to the government, they belong to the people.”

— House Speaker Daniel Perez, proposing a permanent cut to the state sales tax.

Put it on the Tab

Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.

House Speaker Daniel Perez gets a Tax Relief for proposing a first-ever reduction to the state sales tax.

You can’t run a bar without orange juice, and Senate President Ben Albritton is doing his part to keep Florida groves running, so he gets his pick of the best orange juice-based cocktails.

Pour a Smoke on the Water for Sen. Tracie Davis, whose legislation to protect medical professionals from surgical smoke moved through another Committee.

Breakthrough Insights

Tune In

Djokovic, Pagula featured tonight at Miami Open

Novak Djokovic and Jessica Pagula highlight tonight’s schedule at the Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium (7 p.m. ET, Tennis Channel).

Djokovic, the 24-time Grand Slam singles champion, continues to play at a high level at 37. He is ranked fifth in the ATP Rankings and came into the tournament as the number four seed on the men’s side. In his career, he has won 99 titles and has earned a record $186 million in prize money in singles and doubles combined.

Djokovic is scheduled to face 25th-ranked Sebastian Korda this evening. The son of 1998 Australian Open Petr Korda has faced Djokovic only once before. Djokovic beat Korda in three sets in Adelaide, Australia, in 2023. 

Pegula, the fourth seed in the women’s singles draw, faces 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu in a quarterfinal match. Pegula, who lost in the finals of the U.S. Open last year, briefly rose to become the top-ranked women’s tennis player in the world in 2023. She is currently ranked fourth in the WTA Rankings.

The tournament is the last hard-court event in the United States until July, when the tours return to Washington D.C.

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.

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