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Bush signs tax holiday for hurricane preparedness items

PENSACOLA - Vicky Yanes is among tens of thousands of Floridians expected to get an early start on preparing for the new hurricane season as the result of an estimated $9.3-million "tax holiday" Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Monday.

The state's 6 percent sales tax and lesser amounts levied by local governments will be lifted on specified items such as flashlights, batteries, radios, coolers, generators and gasoline cans from June 1, the first day of the 2005 hurricane season, through June 12.

"You want to get prepared regardless," said Yanes, 42, in town for a company training session. "These are things you need to have at the beginning of every hurricane season."

Yanes said she plans to take advantage of the tax break when she returns home to Miami, where she saw Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992.

"If anybody thinks that not being prepared is a good thing, I just ask them to rewind their memories back to Aug. 13 and then think about what the next six weeks looked like," Bush said at the signing ceremony in this storm-battered Panhandle city.

Hurricane Charley struck southwest Florida on that date. It was the first of four hurricanes to hit the state last year, followed by Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

Hundreds of Ivan victims in the Pensacola area still are living in trailers and other temporary housing.

Unlike Yanes, George Williams, 47, a Pensacola architectural designer who rode out Ivan last year, said he's in no hurry to stock up.

"I'm not going to stay around for the next one," he said.

Pensacola lawyer Ed Fleming, 53, said he already has everything on the tax-free list. "The one thing I needed is not covered," Fleming said. He plans to buy more plywood to board up his windows, because his home was damaged when he left some windows uncovered during Ivan.

One of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Ron Greenstein, D-Coconut Creek, said he hopes to expand the tax break in 2006 to include plywood and power tools.

Bush said he could have signed the bill almost anywhere because few parts of Florida escaped last year's onslaught. But, "Just given the magnitude of the damage here in the northwest Florida area, it was more than appropriate to be here."

Bush also used his visit to present checks of $9-million each to Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in federal block grant money funneled through the state to help with hurricane recovery. He said such checks also will be presented to 13 other hard-hit counties.

Bush also confirmed he will approve state funding to help counties and school districts that lost revenues because the storms knocked homes and other buildings off the property tax rolls.

Such narrowly focused spending items, known in Tallahassee as "turkeys," ordinarily are veto targets, but Bush said he would make some exceptions when he acts on the state budget Thursday.

"Because they're areas where they're still recovering," Bush said, "the governor's gotten a little soft."

[Last modified May 24, 2005, 03:00:27]