Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said the Legislature should consider finding ways to collect the sales tax on online purchases, but all but ruled out taking up any gun control proposals in 2013.
Speaking with the Tampa Bay Times’ editorial board, Gaetz said he was open to discussing measures aimed at getting out-of-state businesses to collect the required sales tax on Internet sales.
Democrats have proposed the idea as a way of closing the state’s budget gap for years.
“I think that’s an anomaly in the tax code, maybe an inequity in the tax code, that seems to me we have to look at,” Gaetz said.
The Senate president also said he backs universal background checks for the purchase of guns, but he doesn’t anticipate that and other ideas for gun control to land on the Senate agenda this year.
“Congress is going to take that up,” he told the paper. “Let them have that debate.”
