Florida Tax Debate

What needed to be said to the Republicans in the Florida legislature.

A lobbyist for the Florida League of Cities chided lawmakers for helping to contribute to rising property taxes by forcing local school districts to contribute more in order to access state money. A Broward County commissioner asked them if they’d lobby Congress to end the homeland security mandates that followed Sept. 11, 2001, and suggested that local governments might respond to the property-tax cuts by creating new user fees – such as charging people when they borrow books from the library. Even a representative of AARP warned that the retiree organization had “serious concerns” about the measure.

Florida's per-pupil spending has been a disgrace. What Democrats are proposing is what I have already pitched such as ridding corporate tax loopholes. Republicans are pushing hard to ram this through with no debate.

“Procrastination equals inaction,” said Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter. “We need to do something. There’s a demand for relief.”

Republicans are far from confident about the idea. They immediately attacked economist Hank Fishkind's report. What Fishkind had to say didn't fit their ideology. The report put the blame for the property tax nightmare where it belongs.

Property taxes in Florida are collected exclusively by local governments, school boards, special districts and water management district. The State of Florida is precluded from collecting ad valorem taxes. Article VII Section 1(a) of the Florida Constitution makes this clear. “(a) No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law. No state ad valorem taxes shall be levied upon real estate or tangible personal property. All other forms of taxation shall be preempted to the state except as provided by general law [emphasis added].”

However, the State of Florida does in fact force the collection of property taxes by local school districts, if those districts wish to participate in the Florida Education Funding Program (“FEFP”). In fact, all 67 of Florida’s school districts participate, in part because they also receive very substantial state funds (primarily from the sales tax) by participating. Chapter 1011.71(1), FS sets out the requirements for districts to impose property taxes to meet the requirement of the “required local effort”.

The report conflicts with the conservative narrative that local governments are overfunded.

There is no evidence that Florida counties proliferated staff since 2000 based on our survey of six representative counties used in the LGCI. Figure E7 shows their increases in population growth compared to increases in full-time equivalent (“FTE”) staff. Taken as a whole, these counties had a population increase of 12% compared to a 7% gain in FTE staff. The smaller rural counties had relatively higher increases in staff compared to the more urban counties. As communities become more urbanized, there are higher demands for government services. The more urbanized areas have already made the transition allowing them to capture economies of scale unavailable to the more rural counties.

The data demonstrate that County expenditures were driven higher since 1999 primarily by population growth and cost inflation. There is no evidence that counties proliferated staff or were extravagantly spending.

Jeb Bush and the legislature were notorious for underfunding schools for tax cuts. All that happened was screwing up Florida's tax system and underfunding schools. Florida is headed in that same direction again.

Jeb left the Governor's mansion without calling a special session to solve the property tax problem. A true profile in courage.