CAPE CORAL, Fla — Now that hurricane season is here, it's time to make sure you're prepared. But Florida's tax break to help you stock up on supplies still isn't in place. Fox 4’s Austin Schargorodski checked in with a local hardware store to see how the delay is impacting them.
Watch to hear what the hardware store told Austin about the tax break delay:
Governor Ron DeSantis announced the delay of the hurricane tax holiday at a preparedness presser on Friday.
"We usually do the hurricane tax preparedness holidays the first two weeks of hurricane season, and then we do two weeks at the height of hurricane season. But they haven't even done the budget yet! So we don't have any of the tax holidays in place in the state of Florida," said DeSantis.
He says the delay is tied to an ongoing stalemate in the Florida House, which has yet to finalize the state budget. And until that happens, no tax holidays can be approved.
But this isn't slowing things down at Gavin's Ace Hardware on Pine Island Road. Manager Ed Willis says people are still coming in to get prepared.
"I think our impact is going to be minimal with it. I feel like they will pass it at some point. And when they do, we're ready. We've got everything already stocked," said Willis.
Willis walked Schargorodski through their hurricane preparedness section. It's a centralized spot for supplies like sandbags, propane, flashlights, and shutter hardware.
"Shutter bolts and hardware associated with mounting your shutters. Gas cans are a good thing to have," said Willis.
He also showed off a new emergency radio designed for outages and evacuation kits. "You can crank it to generate the power. The backside has solar so you can set it in the sun to charge it. You can then charge your phone from this. You can get all your weather and news updates," said Willis.
As for the tax holiday timing, Governor DeSantis says he still expects the tax holiday to happen this month, since lawmakers have to pass a budget by the end of June.
"Let's prepare as if we're going to have major events, and then let's hope we get a respite this year. And if we do that will be great for the people of Florida, the state, and a lot of different things," said DeSantis.
