Several of the Chamber's priorities for this year failed to get through the heavily GOP majority in the Legislature the past two years.

The Chamber is again pushing for the imposition of an Internet sales tax, changes to Florida’s “legal climate” such as making it harder to bring medical malpractice suits, and a cap on the price of repackaged drugs -- which business groups say boosts the workers’ compensation rates. All three items are heavily lobbied against by Internet retailers (although Amazon has tried to strike a deal with lawmakers to allow for warehouses in Florida in exchange for the new Internet sales tax), trial lawyers, and doctors who want to be able to sell repackaged drugs, respectively.

“There’s one word that’s going to be our watchword for this agenda, and we think that’s important to the entire state growing jobs and becoming a better place to live, and that is ‘competitiveness.’ We want to make Florida’s business climate more competitive,” said Lars Houmann, chairman of the Chamber Board of Directors.

Part of increasing that competitiveness will be eliminating the sales tax on manufacturing equipment -- already announced by Gov. Rick Scott as one of his priorities this year -- although the Chamber is also supporting increased taxpayer funding of ports and transportation infrastructure, a boon for manufacturers.

Chamber president and CEO Mark Wilson said the business lobby supports increased pay for high-quality teachers, but added that the funds should be found in Florida’s existing revenue.

“I think there’s plenty of money in the education system and in the Florida budget. It’s our belief that the issue is one of prioritization. I think that we can find in case after case, this is a matter of priority more than it’s a matter of finding more money and raising more taxes,” Wilson said.

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