Surely You Jest
The Republan leadership in the Florida legislature thinks that it would be a wonderful idea to eliminate all property taxes in the state and replace them with an increase in the state sales tax from 6% to 8%. [Florida Public Radio Capitol Report]
For some reason local governments have not jumped on this bandwagon.
Via Maya at Suburban Guerrilla, The Guardian reports the shocking news that US Iran intelligence ‘is incorrect’.
For some reason the IAEA is unable to find any of the installations or activities in Iran that the US claims are there. It’s eerily like the chicken farms that the weapons inspectors in Iraq kept finding that the US “intelligence” said were WMD sites.
Next someone will report that a law professor at a border state university has been advocating the murder of civilians based on these faulty reports.
In response to the seemingly annual rumors that the Vatican is about to modify its stand on the use of condoms to combat the spread of AIDS, the BBC decided to ask a couple of Catholics to comment. [BBC World Service radio]
Supporting the wider use of condoms was Brian Haill, President of Australian AIDS Fund, a former Church-sponsored outreach initiative, and on the other side was the noted victim of anti-Catholic bigotry, William “DonoWho”.
In response to DonoWho’s claims about the success of the abstinence only program in Uganda and the permeability of condoms to the AIDS virus, a “Haill” storm erupted. It was a terrible thing to hear, even though no “naughty” words were used.
You did get the feeling that Mr. Haill would not have objected to someone pulling a condom over DonoWho’s head to prove that not even air could get through, not that I’m advocating doing that. I’m not a law professor.
I guess the BBC and Australian Catholics are now anti-Catholic bigots.
5 comments
Can’t FL think of a better way to screw the poor? Like maybe double tax all incomes under 100K, and double tax food and water?
Surely You Jest…
…
The state has the sales tax and local governments have property taxes. If your gated-community has great schools, they aren’t going to be so great anymore. Local governments are going to have to wait to find out how much they will receive before they can budget, because there are big swings in the sales tax revenues.
This takes control of a lot of things away from local governments and gives it to the state.
Around here people will go to Alabama to buy big items, or buy mail order.
The claim for fooling with the sales tax is that tourists will finance the state. Not if they decide it is too expensive.
Florida is the only state I’ve lived in that didn’t have a state income tax. It’s prohibited by the state constitution, so I guess getting the lege to institute one is out, but somehow they’ve got to come to a balance between the real estate taxes and the sales tax. But if I knew the answer, I’d be in Tallahassle, not Miami.
Relying on something as changeable as tourism for the economic base is, as you note, dangerous. All we need are a couple of hurricanes and we’ve got a problem. Oh, wait…
Come on, Bobby, no one who knows anything goes to Leon county except for football games.
Actually we used to get a bump in sales tax revenue from insurance payouts after hurricanes, but with homeowners’ insurance likely to be replaced by a government program because insurance companies are deserting the state, that era is over.
Diversify or lose – it’s a cardinal rule for business.
There are ways of smoothing jumps in property taxes, which should be looked at, but trying to replace them with the sales tax is just stupid.