Business has a huge stake in tax reform, as the Chamber of Commerce tried to tell the Legislature 10 years ago, but many specific businesses prefer the exemptions they've got to the future they don't know. Several business lobbyists serve on the task force, though not as many as on the last Tax and Budget Reform Commission, and if they can see past the trees, they could improve the forest. The panel's larger problem may be ideological. A couple of members appointed by the governor and House speaker have already served notice they want to make taxes harder to pass. But nothing in Horne's bill authorizes the task force to undertake that.
Truth is, they're neither.
Citizens for Tax Justice has ranked Florida as the third most regressive state, because the poorest families pay three times as much of their income in state taxes as the wealthiest do. Horne knows that some people would be happy to see the task force fail, as even more expect it to. Indeed it is. Wish them luck. They'll need lots of it.