News-Press: Be sure tax swap isn’t a shell game
Saturday, April 19, 2008
It’s either grandstanding politics or shrewd bean counting that’s spurring on Senate hearings this Friday on a plan to swap a sales tax increase for a property tax drop.
Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, who chairs the Senate Finance and Tax Committee, says the numbers don’t add up for a proposed constitutional amendment to go on the ballot this November.
He claims the Florida Tax and Budget Reform Commission’s proposal would cost $4 billion in property taxes while its swap would generate only $4.5 million.
That certainly leads one to question how the difference will be made up and whether our state leaders have really concocted a plan to put money in our right pocket by stealing from the left one.
So, move forward with the hearings.
Taxpayers deserve to know what we are voting for.
- David Plazas is the community conversation editor of The News-Press