Crist's gamble on gambling

Bousquet: "With Florida mired in a deep economic slump that shows no signs of ending, Crist could be leading a much-needed dialogue about Florida's tax structure. Instead, he has decided to increase the state's addiction to gambling - despite promising not to do so in his 2006 campaign.

"Crist proved again this week, with the solid victories by John McCain and the property tax cutting Amendment 1, that he has great political instincts. But gambling is another story, and embracing it is a sure sign of desperation. "

More here.

Comments

[zenator]

Steve Bousquet in common with many liberal dems believes that the way to raise Florida's revenues is by raising taxes, presumably in the form of a state income tax, which they label a "fair" form of taxation. Of course, he is careful not to state that view directly lest he be laughed out of town. Instead, he suggests that Florida's "tax structure" needs to be reformed and criticizes the Governor for failing to engage in such a "dialogue."

Earth to Steve: the Governor just led the fight to lower taxes, not raise them.

With respect to gaming revenues, prior to Crist taking office, Florida was already receiving revenue from its horse and dog tracks, already receiving revenue form the state lottery, already receiving revenue from slots in Broward approved per a constitutional amendment and already under federal order to negotiate a compact with the Tribe. Last week, the voters in Dade without any urging from Crist also approved slots.

The state also taxes and hence raises revenues from other conduct, such as the consumption of beer and spirits etc, that some regard as morally offensive.

And, Crist in his draft budget proposes to spend these and other state revenues in order to satisfy expenses.

Such is life...

A bit defensive there aren't you?

Zenator = Lemieux

Glad to see this is a family effort. Ballard gets paid. Remind me whose husband heads the Lottery.

[zenator]

10:44

Perhaps, I shouldn't have had that 3rd cup of java...

11:39

Although, perhaps, not intended as one, I will take that as a compliment...

zenator, dont.

[terminator]

Zenator:
allow myself to pull away from the Superbowl hype long enough to comment.
Charlie certainly isn't very good at keeping promises. I was always taught a man's word is the most valuable thing he has.
If that's the case with Charlie then he's not much of a man.
Being a politician aside, how many times on the campaign trail did we hear Charlie say: "I'm a Jeb Bush Republican" or "I'll continue the Jeb Bush legacy".
So far Charlie has failed to do almost none of what he promised.
He did promise not to expand gambling. I guess those fundraisers with the Donald should have been a tip off to even the most gullible of Florida voters about which direction our dear Chuck was taking.
And the recent A1, while cutting taxes on average a couple hundred per year basically forces local governments to increase their millage rates due to more of a tax shift from the state to the locals ($338 million in RLE school taxes), so there will be some perplexed faces upon receiving trim notices next year.
And don't even get me going on property insurance.
Yet still, they love the guy as evidenced by the most recent poll above.
Doesn't give you a lot of faith in mankind does it?

terminator, but CC did say something about restoring felon's rights on the campaign trail...

didn't he? I am just trying to keep up with if he kept he word from last week or if that word amounts to anything worthwhile...

And you think that Gallagher would have been a better governor. Come on, Tom would have broken every promise he made on the trail and probeably a few laws as well.

[zenator]

Termie:

Please recognize that relatively little of Florida's budget involves discretionary spending items, much of the money goes to federally mandated, but unfunded programs. Now that revenues are shrinking as Florida goes into recession, the choices are relatively stark--cut programs like education, or find alternative revenue sources.

Crist is trying to make the best out of a bad situation that he inherited without raising taxes. To the contrary, Crist continues to lead the fight to cut taxes as demonstrated by the recent passage of Amendment 1.

Too bad Crist didn't appoint someone besides Bense to chair the TBRC.

As another blogger posted on a previous thread, we got tax relief with Amendment 1 but we still need tax reform. You can reform tax structure without a state income tax.

Crist should boot Bense and make Zenator the Chair of TBRC!

Now wouldn't Zenator = George Lemiuex just love that being the Chairman of TBRC. George you are such an ego maniac you take the best of peoples ideas and make them your own. You are a joke. Stop trying to use your old position to make you relevant

i'm libertarian at heart, but to simply say we can NEVER reveiw our underlying tax structure and to label any attempt to do so as tax increase is just bogus hogwash.

if we were able to review certain sales tax exemptions and eliminate those that don't pass the smell test (in other words its more corporate welfare than serving any other reasonable purpose) then the tax burden would be spread across more of the economy.

now, i would not be in favor of sales tax on services, because consumers are already paying it as a cost passed along by the company providing the service who had to purchase whatever goods they used - but reviewing exemptions on goods should be fair game.

and anyway, it's at least a heck of a lot better than betting our future on gambling/gaming