Senate Finance and Tax Committee Chairman Thad Altman said he thinks the temperature isn't right for a broad-based discussion of sales tax exemptions this session. The reasons: The Senate is already doing heavy lifting with its $1 tobacco tax hike, fixing a loophole in the documentary stamp tax and the plan to reform corporate income taxes.

"It's been an incredible workload,'' said Altman, a Melbourne Republican, Altman last week had said the Senate would propose a bill to remove dozens of sales tax exemptions that give some companies an unfair advantage. Now he says: "I don't know how far we're going to get with the exemptions this session,'' he said.

He said his original hopes for updating the state's sales tax exemptions may be dashed because of pragmatic politics: "The fact that the House simply went nowhere and we're rolling out three reform items.''

He said he was hoping to meet with Senate President Jeff Atwater to "put closure'' on the issue next week. Meanwhile, the Senate will focus on the tax and revenue issues that bring in the most money to fill the state's $3 billion budget hole. His committee has passed a bill to raise $800 million from tobacco taxes and a bill to close an undetermined amount of corporate tax loopholes. A bill to tighten documentary stamp collections will be up on Monday.

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