Amendment we DON'T need: Florida Amendment 1

This Tuesday, Florida will host a primary for Republicans (and Democrats, even though the DNC has barred delegates from the state because we're voting out of turn). There will also be a ballot for a state amendment, meant to reform our state's property tax laws and supposedly making things easier for homeowners.

The amendment, in short, sucks.

To quote from Jeff Webb's article I linked to:

For sure, Florida's tax system is a mess and it needs reform desperately. But the deceitful deal that is Amendment 1 doesn't do the job; it only perpetuates the inequities and gives people an undeserved sense of confidence in their lawmakers.

And make no mistake about it: That's exactly what the politicians who back Amendment 1 are seeking. They want to go on the campaign trail this year and crow about how they saved you money by cutting your taxes.

(Remember, these are the same people who still claim - amazingly, with straight faces - that they solved the homeowners insurance crisis.)

So what exactly would fix Florida's tax system?

For one thing, recognition by both voters and politicians that, dammit, things cost money. We look to government to fix our roads, hire the police, clean the water, rebuild our schools, aid us during and after disasters, and take care of a hundred other things. That means governments have to establish taxes in order to pay for all those things. That means taxes are, honestly, a necessary evil. The question becomes, "How do we keep taxes fair?"

The answer isn't "Cut taxes," which seems to be the only answer politicians are willing to provide. Nobody wants to be on record as saying we need to raise them, or keep them at certain levels, because then the anti-tax nuts will go on the warpath and everything sensible gets tossed overboard. As a result, the incoming revenue stream gets narrowed with those cuts, just as government services have to expand in order to meet more needs of a state that has outgrown its limits (overpopulation, which is stressing our schools, transportation, water supply, health care service, and everything else).

There was already a major budget cut hit this past year in 2007, a lot to do with the fact that Florida can no longer rely on sales taxes and property taxes to pay for everything the state needs to do. Home sales and new constructions are down due to a massive market downturn (which is another disaster story altogether). Home values are dropping, screwing up the math of property assessment and taxation. Instead of expanding services, the state government had to cut back, and also cut back funding to the counties and cities, hurting those groups' abilities to fund their services. (Disclosure: I work as a public librarian whose library system exists on state and county funding)

Instead of trying to wow the voters with a Super Homestead Exemption, which looks so pretty on paper but which can come back to bite us on the ass, the state of Florida needs to switch to a State Income Tax system. Yes, there's about 900 million people screaming about how Florida never needed a state-level income tax system to mess things up further. But here's the deal: relying on property and sales taxes ain't helping. Florida is one of the few states left that HASN'T gone to an income tax system, and maybe that's saying something that the other states know what they're doing.