Opinion ID: 1788757
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Construction Industry

Text: Representatives of the construction industry argue that the act violates due process because it fails to define essential services for purposes of tax exemption and because the exemptions listed in newly created section 212.0592 are unconstitutionally arbitrary. Ch. 87-6, § 3, Laws of Fla. Because, as we stated above, the essential nature of an item bears no relation to its taxability, we find any purported vagueness in the definition of essential services to be wholly irrelevant. Moreover, as counsel for the legislature pointed out during oral argument, the legislative process is a political one. Many of the exemptions that opponents of the act single out as examples of arbitrariness were enacted in order either to minimize the regressive nature of tax or to address the specific concerns of organizations that the general taxing mechanism affected. Thus, we cannot say that the exemptions listed in section 212.0592 are unconstitutionally arbitrary or unreasonable.