Daniel TilsonGov. Rick Scott and Florida’s Republican legislators think lots of Election 2014 votes can be won with a $25 auto fee refund and some sales tax holidays.
The Florida Chamber and other big business war chests will finance endlessly misleading multimedia messaging, about how Republicans have achieved “meaningful tax relief for Florida’s families,” by letting them “keep nearly $400 million of their hard-earned money in their own pockets.”
They won’t mention what the Republican budget lets Florida’s biggest business interests keep in their own pockets … but more on that below.
In Tallahassee, Republican state representatives and senators are in the process of finalizing and passing the “It’s Your Money Tax Cut Budget,” which Scott gave its catchy name and asked for as a reelection-year gift from GOP legislators in 2014.
I left the words “and Democratic” out of the beginning of that last sentence because, despite their best efforts to have serious impact, Democratic legislators are stuck by voters with such meager minority presence that they’re largely left out of setting or successfully pursuing budget priorities.
And so millions of working families, middle-class households and retirees on stretched-thin budgets are left out of the process, too.
Scott and other Republicans seeking reelection think they can still win many of those votes with their $25 auto fee refund and a handful of sales tax breaks.
The governor will refer to the fee refund as “rolling back many of the 2009 tax increases,” signed into law by then-governor and now his presumptive and formidable general election opponent, Charlie Crist.
In reality, the 2009 fee increase was pushed through by Republicans, and signed by Crist at the height of The Great Recession, to help offset huge budget deficits. Crist left office in 2010, the recession still raging. Gov. Scott then waited nearly four years, until his reelection, to push for fee refunds.
If you think waiting that way and then calling it “rolling back tax increases” is fast and loose political gamesmanship, you’re getting the picture.
It’s a picture of deceptive “bait and switch” politics that ought to insult any voter’s intelligence.
I’m not minimizing the importance of saving 25 bucks and some sales taxes for middle-class, working poor and retired folks all over Florida. In times like these, every little bit helps, no doubt.
Having said that, let’s get real and admit …
That every little bit is, in this case, a very little bit.
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t feel like “meaningful” relief, not in light of my mortgage payment, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, utility bills and daily cost of living.
The truth is, the meaningful tax relief in this Florida Republican budget (and those of recent years) is reserved for big-time corporate contributors to Scott and other GOP elected officials.
That’s not a Democratic, liberal talking point. It is factual information, which, if you ignore attempts to discredit it and instead take a look at it, will open your eyes wide and likely with anger.
Take a very straightforward, easy-to-read (only two pages) and startling new report; which by way of debunking Republican claims that public pension “reform” is needed, tallies up the annual cost to taxpayers of Florida’s corporate welfare handouts.
“The total of these corporate subsidies, official tax breaks and unofficial tax dodging amounts to more than $3.8 billion per year.”
It’s time for all Florida voters to recognize that when it comes to “bread and butter” issues, they’re not getting a straight story or fair shake out of this Republican-run government, budget, or economy.
A New York University graduate, Daniel Tilson owns a Boca Raton-based firm, Full Cup Media, offering “a la carte” and custom-bundled packages of communications services. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
One comment
Dedicated_PE
April 4, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Rickity and the Tallahassee Taliban don’t talk about much is the State of Florida 3% Public Employees Income Tax that was levied in 2011 – a tax based completely on income and costing the active Florida Retirement System Public Employee many thousands of dollars apiece to date. This is money that would otherwise be funneled into the Florida economy, but thanks to Scotty and his Tea Party cabal in the legislature, we are taxed to the tune of 1 BILLION dollars a year. So yeah, I pay a lousy $20 less for my registration, but do you think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that ANY Public Employee (or their family and friends) will vote for ANY of these clowns in light of the fact that they have imposed the largest tax in Florida history on us?
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