TC Palm: Senator Haridopolos decries ballot tax measure

Monday, July 28, 2008

By Joe Croft

PALM CITY—State Senator Mike Haridopolos described proposed state Constitutional Amendment 5 as a “bait and switch shell game”—producing enthusiastic applause from members of the Palm City and Stuart/Martin County chambers of commerce Wednesday.

Amendment 5 would reduce property taxes while requiring the Legislature to make up about $9.8 billion in lost revenue by increasing the sales tax, repealing sales tax exemptions that serve no public purpose and using other means to make up the difference.

Haridopolos, who is expected to become state senate president after the 2010 elections, said when he first heard what the amendment was supposed to accomplish he was favorably impressed.

He said a closer examination showed the measure would actually require $3.6 billion or $200 more per person in new spending to prevent additional cuts in education budgets because it would take $11 billion from education and only raise $4 billion from the sales tax increase.

“How do we make up the $7 billion?” said Haridopolos, R-Melbourne. “The numbers don’t add up. We need to come up with something better to grow our economy and provide incentives for business to come to our state.”

The impact on schools would also be drastic, Martin County School Board member Lorie Shekailo said.

“If this happens we will have a budget reduction of $4.4 million in addition to the recently announced state cuts and this would cause a significant increase in costs for Martin County schools,” she said.

Sue Hershey, another school board member, said the school board and several other groups have filed to have the amendment removed from the ballot.

Plus, Haridopolos said sales taxes could be levied on services that previously have not been subject to them.

Haridopolos represents a legislative district including 400,000 residents in St. Lucie, Indian River, Brevard and Osceola counties.