Legislators to gamble education in latest property tax scheme
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By Jim Turner
Posted at 05:21 PM on March 26, 2008
It's kind of amazing that in a state where many political leaders are opposed to expanding slots and other games of chance, they are willing to gamble our educational future on the hope that we spend year-round like we're on holiday.
For that's essentially the proposal that the Republican-lead Legislature is moving towards with the latest state tax overhaul they intend to put before voters this November.
In exchange for landowners not having to pay property taxes for schools, education will be paid for through increased sales taxes.
For landowners, especially the elderly who came here to retire from up north, this is even better than the portability provision approved last November. Now you're talking about cutting 25 to 40 percent of your property tax bill in exchange for at the least a 1 percent increase in the sales tax.
That's a boon for those who argue that they've already paid for their kids to go through school and believe they've done their fair share.
Of course, the tradeoff is that almost all educational decisions will now come through Tallahassee, as all money for local schools would be earmarked by the state under the new proposal.
Not that the locals have the greatest track record, but I'd rather back them than any term-limited numbnut that is at the beck and call of any special interest lobbyists in Tallahassee when it comes to determining the educational needs of the kids growing up in my neighborhood.
Right off the bat I'm not encouraged by our state leaders as the proposal punches a $7.9 billion whole in the state's $18.9 billion education budget. And their initial solution is to just up the sales tax by 1 percent to generate $3.3 billion to $3.9 billion - depending upon our spending habits and tourism.
They could bump the sales tax 2 percent and add sales taxes to professional services such as lawyers, who have powerful business lobbyists.
But what you're going to get is the state ordering locals to cut back their services even further than they've been hit in recent revenue shortages.
Also, we'll be told we've wasted money for years on an education system that is miserable at best. What they need to do is streamline the process with this new tax shift, you'll hear.
This is the same short-term thinking from those who say we've spent $1 billion to lure giant life science efforts to the state and now expect to sit back and just wait for the grants and research spin-offs to start springing up across the landscape, filled with cures and jobs.
We could have taken the momentum of last November's Amendment 1 tax reform and continue to critically look at the inequity of the property tax system that is weighed unevenly against part-time residents, those who own more than one property and businesses.
But we won't. We'll go to the polls and roll the dice, betting heavily on greed, that we can craft a world class educational system that feeds into the life sciences and will keep our kids from joining the northern exodus.
Posted at 05:21 PM on March 26, 2008
It's kind of amazing that in a state where many political leaders are opposed to expanding slots and other games of chance, they are willing to gamble our educational future on the hope that we spend year-round like we're on holiday.
For that's essentially the proposal that the Republican-lead Legislature is moving towards with the latest state tax overhaul they intend to put before voters this November.
In exchange for landowners not having to pay property taxes for schools, education will be paid for through increased sales taxes.
For landowners, especially the elderly who came here to retire from up north, this is even better than the portability provision approved last November. Now you're talking about cutting 25 to 40 percent of your property tax bill in exchange for at the least a 1 percent increase in the sales tax.
That's a boon for those who argue that they've already paid for their kids to go through school and believe they've done their fair share.
Of course, the tradeoff is that almost all educational decisions will now come through Tallahassee, as all money for local schools would be earmarked by the state under the new proposal.
Not that the locals have the greatest track record, but I'd rather back them than any term-limited numbnut that is at the beck and call of any special interest lobbyists in Tallahassee when it comes to determining the educational needs of the kids growing up in my neighborhood.
Right off the bat I'm not encouraged by our state leaders as the proposal punches a $7.9 billion whole in the state's $18.9 billion education budget. And their initial solution is to just up the sales tax by 1 percent to generate $3.3 billion to $3.9 billion - depending upon our spending habits and tourism.
They could bump the sales tax 2 percent and add sales taxes to professional services such as lawyers, who have powerful business lobbyists.
But what you're going to get is the state ordering locals to cut back their services even further than they've been hit in recent revenue shortages.
Also, we'll be told we've wasted money for years on an education system that is miserable at best. What they need to do is streamline the process with this new tax shift, you'll hear.
This is the same short-term thinking from those who say we've spent $1 billion to lure giant life science efforts to the state and now expect to sit back and just wait for the grants and research spin-offs to start springing up across the landscape, filled with cures and jobs.
We could have taken the momentum of last November's Amendment 1 tax reform and continue to critically look at the inequity of the property tax system that is weighed unevenly against part-time residents, those who own more than one property and businesses.
But we won't. We'll go to the polls and roll the dice, betting heavily on greed, that we can craft a world class educational system that feeds into the life sciences and will keep our kids from joining the northern exodus.
