Editor\u2019s note: This editorial has been updated from the print version to reflect the final status of bills that died after our print deadline for the Saturday edition.<\/p>\n
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Before a 2022 vote on a proposed sales surtax that would have given Orange County<\/a> the money it needed to improve public transit, quell this area\u2019s ever-growing danger to bicyclists\u00a0and\u00a0unsnarl several of Central Florida\u2019s most congested roadways, County Mayor Jerry Demings asked a prophetic question:<\/p>\n \u201cIf not now,\u201d he said, \u201cwhen?\u201d<\/p>\n That question drew a depressing answer earlier this month: Maybe never. Almost certainly, a long time. Residents of this county \u2014 and other counties that couldn\u2019t secure additional sources of revenue to deal with the inevitable impact of growth and Florida\u2019s increasingly unhinged Legislature \u2014 can expect things to get a lot worse before they get better.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t fault the County Commission for rejecting a last-ditch plan<\/a> to put another sales surtax on the November ballot \u2014 something they also considered in 2024. The plan the commission discussed at its March 2 meeting<\/a> was a solid start, envisioning a one-penny surtax that would raise about $758.6 million a year, with almost 90% of its proceeds coming from visitors to Orange County. It would have addressed multiple needs that appeal to local voters, including transportation, affordable housing and environmental preservation.<\/p>\n In more rational times, it probably would have passed easily.<\/p>\n These are not rational times.<\/p>\n This year, any attempt to raise money for local needs will almost certainly go down in flames, thanks to the irresponsible war that powerful Tallahassee interests have launched on Florida\u2019s local governments.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, county officials will need to save all their firepower to fight a ruinous plan to slash funding the county depends on for essential functions like emergency services. They don\u2019t know what that proposal will look like, but they can rest assured that the backers of the plan, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, will fight dirty to get this on the ballot and then approved.<\/p>\n A war of mass distraction<\/p>\n In fact they\u2019ve already started. In recent years, lawmakers have worked to strip cities and counties of the ability to manage their own growth without straining local resources, including schools, roads, city and county services and utilities. But that\u2019s just one shoe dropped. The double whammy is likely to arrive later this year: Another ballot question, this one statewide, that would sharply reduce the amount of property taxes flowing to cities and counties. Lawmakers failed to pass a plan during the session, but DeSantis plans to call them back.<\/p>\n Rancor among Republicans doomed property tax plan<\/a><\/p>\n If the statewide property-tax cut tax makes the ballot, it seems likely to pass \u2014 even though it would exacerbate tax-fairness problems across the state. The only plan that\u2019s been approved so far (and that died at the end of the regular session, though it\u00a0 could easily be revived) would erase non-school property taxes for all homesteaded properties in the state. This would obviously provide the biggest benefits to owners of pricey McMansions in gated communities, which could see tax breaks tax savings up to thousands of dollars per household. Meanwhile, it would do very little for owners of inexpensive homes, and could actually put more of a burden on people who must pay rent (and whose landlords might see their property taxed at a higher level to make up some of the tax lost from homeowners).<\/p>\n This may not be the break that is finally approved when DeSantis calls the Legislature back in session to deal with it. But it\u2019s clear that the state\u2019s GOP leaders intend to push forward with some kind of property tax giveaway \u2014 one that makes them look tough on taxes without reining in their own extravagant spending.<\/p>\n The underhanded plan<\/p>\n The way this plan was launched speaks volumes. Over the past several months, former State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (who is currently filling in as Florida\u2019s chief financial officer) barnstormed the state bragging of \u201cproof\u201d that local governments were wasteful and overspending. He kicked off his campaign in Orange County, lucky us \u2014 and it was immediately apparent that he could not cite a single example of actual waste<\/a>. Instead, he babbled off a cockeyed formula that claimed to track spending against population growth, using bogus numbers and ignoring other factors, including COVID and spending demands that had been dumped on cities and counties by state government.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It seems obvious that Ingoglia didn\u2019t really set out to prove anything. Instead, he was focused on ginning up the myth that city and county governments were wasteful and bloated \u2014 encouraging Floridians to underestimate the impact of a giant property-tax reduction. Yet leaders in the House and Senate have dutifully parroted his claims as if they were based on actual math.<\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t matter. Any proposal to increase taxes on that same November ballot \u2014 however justified \u2014 is almost certainly doomed, and might even add to the miasma of faux outrage that\u2019s already surrounding the statewide tax cut.<\/p>\n Outrage and falsity<\/p>\n One thing is becoming clear. The people in charge of Florida\u00a0 government \u2014 which is top-to-bottom controlled by extreme elements of the GOP \u2014 are determined to turn this state into California, where voters are duped into supporting an endless stream of short-sighted tax cuts. Any suggestion of a cohesive, equitable tax policy in Florida has been shredded by petty partisanship, deceitful tactics and fake populism. And there\u2019s a bonus. Making city and county leaders struggle to fund basic services will undermine their ability to say \u201cno\u201d to powerful landowners and developers who want to pave the remaining scraps of Florida\u2019s wilderness.<\/p>\n