Gainesville Sun: On second thought

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

April 15, 2008 - The Gainesville Sun

State Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, deserves credit for challenging the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission to take a second look at a proposal to eliminate property taxes that help pay for schools in Florida.

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The commission, which has the power to put tax-related initiatives directly on the ballot, has already cleared an amendment that would, if approved by the voters in November, eliminate about $9 billion a year in property taxes.

At first blush, that sounds like a great deal for taxpayers. But the proposal envisions the Legislature making up that school funding by raising the state sales tax and eliminating some sales tax exemptions, without specifying which exemptions should be axed.

The problem, Haridopolos argues, is that closing tax exemptions alone won’t raise sufficient funding to make up the difference. He estimates that lawmakers would have to increase the sales tax by 2.7 cents to replace the lost property tax revenues.

That would be a significant increase, and sales taxes are regressive in that they hit poor and lower income families harder than middle- and upper-income Floridians.

Florida already ranks near the bottom of the states in per-capita funding for education. And this year per-student funding may be reduced by as much as 2 percent.

Earlier promises by lawmakers to hold schools “harmless” as a result of the last property tax relief initiative are already proving to be meaningless. The prospect of elected officials voting to significantly raise the sales tax in order to offset huge decreases in property taxes are not good. It is far more likely that school funding would be reduced in coming years as a matter of political expediency.

Haridopolos, who is in line to become Senate President, wants the commission to reconsider its previous approval of the property tax cut amendment. “The numbers don’t add up,” he says.

The unintended consequence of this ill-considered amendment would either devastate public education or place a higher sales tax burden on the very Floridians who can least afford it.