Rouson Says Collecting Taxes Already Owed Could Offset USF Cuts - Bradenton Times

State Representative Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, reacted to the controversial cuts to the University of South Florida system in state funding proposed by the Florida Senate in its annual budget yesterday.Rouson continued, “The reality is we are going to have to make cuts. We are not going to necessarily gain allies by making the cuts equal across the board. As we cut, we must use existing opportunities, such as the Internet sales tax and the remittance of the collected sales tax proceeds from online travel companies. In Florida Trend business magazine this morning, I found a growing clamor for enforcing the Internet sales tax as I have been advocating for years. Enforcement alone would substantially plug the gap in the state budget and eliminate all of our cuts at USF. So instead of shifting our pain to others, the Bull Nation should tell our state legislators that ‘we want to collect taxes that are already on the books and support you for doing so."