Do self-styled fiscal conservatives want to liberate long-suffering homeowners from the yoke of unjust taxation?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or are they willing to find ways to extract more money from the suckers amid a flat-lining economy, a floundering greenback and a jacked-up job market where no one\u2019s getting raises except the JEA CEO?<\/p>\n
Why not both?<\/p>\n
In the latest indication that Florida\u2019s political culture is best interpreted through the lens of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, policy makers want to convince voters that it\u2019s day and night at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Consider two items in the news for evidence that it might take a seance with Sigmund Freud to actually figure out what it is Republicans want to do with your tax money.<\/p>\n
Exhibit A: the ongoing promises from the governor\u2019s office to push through the Legislature language that would allow Florida residents to vote to get rid of property taxes on homesteads, a neat piece of class division currently polling below<\/a> the requisite 60% on the ballot needed to make this happen, especially since many voters do not own a home and may never be able to, so what\u2019s their incentive not to soak the suckers? <\/p>\n You\u2019ll note the regular session, which ended Friday after 60 days of little but posturing and farewell speeches, didn\u2019t encompass this revolutionary plan.<\/p>\n In St. Augustine last month, DeSantis said it was by design.<\/p>\n \u201cI would not anticipate this happening in the regular session. That was never our plan on this. And there\u2019s reasons for that. But it\u2019s going to get done. And you guys are going to be able to go to the polls and be able to vote something that\u2019s really, really meaningful,\u201d DeSantis claimed.<\/p>\n The House passed a product that would exempt homesteads from all ad valorem taxes, with the exception of school district obligations. But the Senate didn\u2019t take that up, apparently because of some undefined semantic deficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t just have a bureaucrat write that, that there\u2019s an art to it, that you have to know how that language is going to do,\u201d DeSantis added.<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 idea of the \u201cart\u201d of the whole thing may be debatable.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what\u2019s less arguable, at least according to Jacksonville City Council auditors<\/a>, is that eliminating property taxes would gut the budget, shaving roughly $375 million off the top, a functional 20% haircut that would drive as much austerity as the city has experienced since the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis \u2013 to be clear, we\u2019re talking about the last one from almost 20 years ago, not the one that\u2019s coming in a few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n Roads, sidewalks, indigent health care \u2013 these are the things you\u2019d say goodbye to, as if Hans Tanzler pulled a Weekend at Bernie\u2019s and got a fourth term. And never mind the heartburn this would give bond and credit rating agencies<\/a> that no one is mentioning yet, meaning future borrowing would just get more expensive, thus canceling out the nominal gains.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Tallahassee theoretically wants to put money in homeowners\u2019 pockets, the Duval County School Board more than theoretically wants to take it back.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ironically, given the governor who is so concerned about homestead taxes did everything he could to elevate conservative politicians to the board in recent years, it\u2019s that same group that is ready and raring to extend a 1 mill tax that was a priority of those very same liberals who merited repudiation in 2022.<\/p>\n The vote wasn\u2019t close: 6 to 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n