Budget negotiators OK increased fees
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Motor vehicle registration, driver license and court fees will be going up and tobacco taxes will increase, but Florida also will join every other state in waiving court filing fees for poor people through a series of budget conforming bills approved Tuesday by top House and Senate negotiators.
Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist at a town hall meeting in Pensacola said he probably will sign into law the $1-a-pack increase in the state’s cigarette tax, now $34 cents. Crist initially had opposed it.
“I’m still not warm and fuzzy about it, but I understand and respect the process that our members of the House and Senate went through to get there, and I’m going to be respectful of it,” Crist said after returning to Tallahassee.
Crist also said he was pleased lawmakers have exempted cigars from the tobacco tax increase. Florida is the nation’s leading cigar producer.
The tobacco tax, the closure of a real estate transaction tax loophole and the fee increases are expected to raise nearly $2 billion to help balance a $66.5 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The fee increases cover a wide range of services including pesticides and commercial scales. Even prison inmates won’t escape. Their co-payment for non-emergency health care will increase from $4 to $5. The burden, though, will fall most heavily on motorists.
Annual registration fees, which are based on vehicle weight, will go up by 35 percent. That will add about $5 to the fee for the lightest cars and about $11.40 for the heaviest. The biggest registration fee increase – about $340 – would be on the heaviest trucks.
The 35 percent increase is a compromise between the House, which wanted to double registration fees, and a more modest Senate proposal. The initial fee to register a vehicle, though, will more than double, going from $100 to $225.
The fee for an initial driver license will go from $27 to $48. A renewal from $20 to $48.