Geoff Oldfather: Amendment created using abacus and Ouija board

Friday, August 15, 2008

By Geoff Oldfather

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist apparently doesn’t care about Florida taxpayers, educating our children or making sure teachers are taken care of.

He does care about trips to Europe, photo ops, and empty political promises that make him look good so his name can be bandied about ad nauseam in the ongoing speculation about who presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain will choose for his running mate.

How else do you explain his support for Amendment 5, the proposal being pushed as the best way to lower property taxes—in exchange for an increase in the state sales tax?

The idiots who put this one together were using a Chinese abacus wired to a Ouija board.

Amendment 5 would include a 1-cent sales tax increase to offset the property tax cut, and if property taxes that pay to operate K-12 schools are eliminated it is true homeowners would see tax bills drop by as much as 25 percent.

But the measure would require $3.6 billion or $200 more per person in new spending to prevent further cuts in education, already reeling from the legislature’s last go-round. Why? Because it takes $8.3 billion from education and that 1-cent sales tax increase can only be counted on to raise an additional $3.2 billion—leading to an $11 billion gap in two years.

And the geniuses who used that abacus wired to a Ouija board use 2007 economic estimates when in fact the state’s Consensus Estimating Conference in July lowered economic forecasts in major areas like revenue, housing, jobs and income all the way through fiscal year 2011-12.

I think what’s really driving Crist are memories of standing in front of the TV cameras at the end of the 2007 legislative session on property taxes, promising to make property taxes “drop like a rock”—while holding a rock in his hand.

He looked stupid then, he looks stupid now.

He wants to be able to say he made good on that pledge, no matter the “unintended consequences.”

On the other side of this issue is state Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, chairman of the Senate Finance and Tax Committee.

Haridopolos is genuinely worried about the impact on education, business and taxpayers as a whole.

“My job as chairman of finance and tax is to look at these things very carefully,” Haridopolos said.

“This is not a tax cut, it’s clearly a tax increase. It severely undercuts education and will hurt the business environment,” he said.

“It’s a challenge for the governor’s staff to say where the money would come from to fully fund education, and I’m a little surprised at the governor’s position,” Haridopolos said.

He might be surprised, but just remember what I said about Crist wanting to look good politically, damn the consequences.

I’m not surprised at all.