Florida Politics for Dummies

This in response to a reader who asserted that we deserved better than a choice between Charlie  Crist and Rick Scott - a position I endorse, in the main.

    At least Crist isn't a criminal. He is at  best, well meaning and law abiding . At worst, he was  rather average and somewhat ineffectual in his previous term, although, to be fair he had a widespread economic recession driving much of the decision making process in a state which is a slave to sales tax.  Neither Crist or Scott is close to  Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles or Jeb Bush in character, intellect or job performance. (but then neither "W: or his daddy was the man Jeb is. While I often disagreed with Jeb on  policy issues, I never questioned his character.) 

     Scott's significant life accomplishment to date is showing the ability to bilk the nation of billions of Medicare fraud funds and take the fifth 75 times to avoid being held accountable for it. He also rode economic recovery to prosperity and blames Crist for the cuts he had to make in more trying times.  He also has shamelessly pandered to the wealthy, while boasting of his poor origins. We deserve better but, unfortunately,  politics  trumps the interests of the state as long as we whore ourselves to developers, the affluent,  and tourism at the expense of our environment and the aquifer.

    Granted that no one really "wants" a state income tax, which is the environment created in the 40s-50s-60s to encourage wealthy retirees to move south and bring their monies with them. Having said that, we are slaved to sales tax in a way that places us at the mercy of economic ups and downs in a way that few states are. Meanwhile, services taxes are high, but high value  non-real estate personal property taxes are essentially non-existent.

      An example that hits home: a person awning a 12-15 foot boat pays  around $25 to register it. A person owning a 65 foot yacht only pays about $100 more for the same registration. Both are personal ownership decisions reflecting disposable income choices that most Floridians don't have the option to make. Even in Connecticut, a no income tax state, the same two boats would register for $30 and $525. See where I'm going here?

     In Florida, because the wealthy have such influence over revenue, car registration costs are rated by weight, regardless of cost or make; a car under 2499# casts about 46 dollars per year, Kia  five years old or BMW brand new. In Connecticut, however, it doesn't work that way. A passenger vehicle regardless of weight, make or model registers for a reasonable $80, $40 if the owner is over 65, but it doesn't end there . Automobiles are assessed as personal property,  based on the assessed value of the car, every year (it decreases over time, obviously) and the owner pays that fee as well as registration and  the same applies to boats. This makes tax burden proportional to the ability of the taxpayer to afford these luxury items. No one "has" to have a personal watercraft, and if one can afford a 28 foot yacht, then one can afford tie extra tax as well. This sliding scale also allows the low earner who drives a nine year old "beater", to afford to pay for it, while the person who just has to have the $70,000 new Mercedes pays a proportionally higher tax for the privilege, a tax which they can also afford. Ct.  also has a means test of around $41,000 per couple to ease the burden a bit on the personal property taxes.

     While far from perfect, this has resulted in no state income tax in Connecticut. In Florida, it might actually allow a reduction in the state's demand for sales tax, and other fees which affect all payers equally.  Of course, Connecticut lacks one huge Florida asset - tourism, domestic and international. As is, in Florida, a recession causes an almost knee-jerk  drop in sales tax revenue, as tourism declines, a revenue hit over which we have no control. This almost always results in losing teachers (a brilliant move, no?)  while student loads remain constant. A personal property tax proportional to the value of these personal lifestyle options instead of sales tax levied equally on us all and to a large extent tourism dependent, would flatten these ups and downs to a large extent.

     Unfortunately as long as big money talks and bullshit walks the halls of the capitol in Tallahassee, don't hold your breath for meaningful change. Continue to support the Euro trash,  domestic multi-millionaire retirees and northern bankruptcy cheats  with our uber lenient bankruptcy laws and tax system. That guy in the 6000 square foot mansion   with his 40 foot yacht moored in the canal appreciates it! Ignore  fact that he pillaged his failing business in PA of all available cash and fled here, knowing his home, no matter how expensive  was protected  in FL from bankruptcy provisions. Ignore the fact that he then sold the $7 million  home after the bankruptcy proceedings were finalized, bought a  $3 million shack and the big boat. He's living on the income from the $3 mil  he invested. Meanwhile his former employees in PA are job hunting .

     The Rick Scotts of this state play to this crowd shamelessly. Governor (then US Senator) Bob Graham actually attempted to level the field a little some years ago with a  tax on optional services, in other words, if you could afford some optional luxuries, you could pay proportionally. That lasted a very short time!.  Florida is like Ado Annie in "Oklahoma" when it comes to her relationships with the influence peddlers and the lobbyists that infest the state capitol (and in Scott's case, the Statehouse) - She's "just a girl who can't say no!"