Florida Legislature Fails To Pass Property Tax Reform

Marco Rubio harebrained scheme to raise raise sales taxes sank and eliminate property taxes was not a tax cut. It was simply a tax shift. Rubio's stubbornness resulted in the legislative session ending with no property tax relief.

Gov. Charlie Crist acknowledged displeasure that the House and Senate won't be able to resolve their property tax dispute before the end of the session Friday.

"I'm disappointed that we're not going to get this done Friday," Crist said. "But I'm not disheartened."

It was obvious Crist, the Senate and the counties did not support Rubio's proposal. That didn't stop the House Speaker from pushing his plan though the House. It was DOA when it hit the Senate. Rubio knew this would happen. The only thing that matters was what he wanted. Rubio handing Democrats a stick to bash his party with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Democrats, meanwhile, pronounced the session a failure for having failed to accomplish tax reform, its premier issue. House Minority Leader Dan Gelber said agreement may be apparent on some things, but he left no doubt that the sides remain far apart.

"I am not aware that most governments are sitting around in large piles of extra money," said Senate Minority Leader Steven Geller. He is correct the Fishkind report makes that clear. A major reason property taxes have increased is because the state government forced counties to collect proerty taxes to participate in the Florida Education Funding Program. The Florida House increased property taxes for schools by 7.4 percent.

The vote was prompted by Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West, primarily to make a political point. He succeeded. By 65-44, mostly along party lines, House members refused to roll back or even hold the line on the property taxes the state requires for schools.

"If you want to see one reason we have high property taxes," Saunders said in early debate, "look in the mirror."

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning. It smells like failure.

Florida Politics and Peer Review both takes shots at Charlie Crist's handling of the property tax issue. This might be the first time these two blogs ever agreed on anything.