TABOR-like revenue cap dies

A revenue cap is not headed to the November ballot.

The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission has just killed a weaker version of the cap which would have required two-thirds approval by local and state officials for any fee or tax. Proponents wanted a stronger cap, which tied revenue growth to population and inflation, but clung to hope today that the compromise plan would muster 17 votes.

It got 14.

"If you vote no today, you don't think government has a problem with spending," said commissioner Mike Hogan, the Duval County tax collector who sponsored the original proposal. "This is as good as we could get." His closing argument drew applause from the packed audience. But the vote also drew cheers.

Comments

[Colorado]

Y'all just missed a golden opportunity. Just look at how much TABOR's done for us (NOT).

Bye, Bye, TABOR, we will miss you, not!

Can someone please post the names with the votes.

I want to make sure the people voting NO understand they will be targeted at their next election.

These fatcats want to continue the DRUNKEN SPENDING.

Never fear. Speaker Marco Rubio's 1.35% Property Tax Cap Amendment will likely go on the 2010 ballot.
This is a citizen's initiative, so none of these fat cats can stop it.

The voters will decide this.

Rollback taxes and spending to 2002 levels, expand SOH to ALL property both residential and commercial, and vote every incumbent out of office.

Problem Solved!

2:56, please stop your drunken posting. It's boring.

The legislature has bills pending to cap property taxes & spending.

Bravo Rubio. The TBRC are idiots & should be disbanded forever if it can't get meaningful relief on the ballot.

2:56

How out of touch are you? Targeted next election????

Good threat except that all but one member of the TBRC won't be on any ballots next election.

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF WILL BE THE MAIN TOPIC OF EVERY LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS UNTIL SOMETHING IS DONE.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT'S FAT SPENDING WILL BE TARGETED FOREVER UNTIL WE GET OUR MEANINGFUL RELIEF!

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF WILL BE THE MAIN TOPIC OF EVERY LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS UNTIL SOMETHING IS DONE.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT'S FAT SPENDING WILL BE TARGETED FOREVER UNTIL WE GET OUR MEANINGFUL RELIEF!

3:02 These fat cats will come up for re-election sooner or later. They will be targeted. Tax relief is a movement that is getting stronger & stronger.

[Sneaky Pete]

Heh, heh, heh. An outbreak of sanity at the TBRC. Let's hope it's viral, and spreads to the legilsature, particularly the nut bars in the House.

Because those on the TBRC - who are more worried about their futures - know what is best...

Problem Solved!

Hey 2:56, ya dope, there are no elected officials on the TBRC as voting members.

Read much?

3:07

These are not elected positions. They are appointees (FYI, that means they are appointed not elected).

It may be that one or two run for office in the future, but most of the TBRC are FORMER elected officials who are done holding office and LOBBYISTS who wouldn't take the pay cut.

I applaud your desire to hold the members accountable, but please recognize this whole TBRC thing was created so its harder for people like yourselves to hold them accountable for their actions.

3:07's a dope too. Ignorant Rubio lemmings, nothing more.

I don't care when they are due for re-election - I want their names so I can vote them out. In the meantime, I signed the petition for the 1.35 tax cap and plan to continue to make this the top priority then property insurance. Vote them all out - they don't represent the people.

Memo to the Rubio flaks:

Stop the revisionist history.

If your guy hadn't rolled over to Crist and Pruitt, we wouldn't have Amendment 1. The plan that passed the House nearly unanimously would have provided much deeper cuts and a stronger cap on non-commerical, plus helped new homeowners. But rather than pushing it, Rubio not only chose to take the Senate plan, but also took the unprecidented step of taking the floor and speaking in favor of it.

3:25

Ok. Here is a comprehensive list of the TBRC members up for re-election this November:

1.
2.
3.
4.

DEMOCRATS are hindering property tax relief.

Vote out every democrat! Look at their votes in support of local government's drunken spending.

3:28 Tedious and transparent spin. Give it a rest for a while, please!

3:30 Gone off the deep end!

3:22pm, these guys will run again in elections. We'll target them when they run.

These fat cats like Rousson, Sink, ect..

Isn't D. Rousson running in Nov?

The guy in Sarasota may be the better candidate

It's no wonder they are voting down every relief possible - they don't have to be held responsible. People listen - take the matter in to your own hands and sign up to the 1.35% property tax plan www.lowerpropertytaxesnow.com. The govt. will not and does not want to lower our taxes. If you want relief - we MUST do it ourselves. Sign the petition so that it gets on the 2010 ballot - please.

Problem Solved - go back to your big business buddies and ask for another huge donation - you need to update your playbook. It's too late to keep trying to fool the people with your same tired spin. You've been smoked.

I still want their names - if they ever do run for another office - I will never vote for them.

3:35 You're sounding desperate!

Not as many "sheeple" out there as you thought, eh?

3:41 You sound just like one of them

Grover's not going to pleased! When's your flight back home?

3:35

You're correct. How's this?

Here is a comprehensive list of the TBRC members up for re-election this November:

1. D. Rousen
2.
3.
4.

Isn't Gelber on the commission as a non-voting member?

Let's end his political future too.

If we want tax fairness in Florida while simultaneously REDUCING our FEDERAL taxes, we would do what was necessary to replace most or all of our property taxes with an income tax, but because what this is really about is just destoying the state of Florida, we will eliminate the property tax without any replacement.

Replace Property taxes with more Sales Tax.

problem solved

Good idea, 4:07 p.m. as long as you also tar and feather each and everyone of the following current and past ex-officio members of the commission:

Ex Officio Members:
Senator Mike Haridopolos
Senator Gwen Margolis
Representative Dan Gelber
Representative David Rivera
Representative Frank Peterman, Jr. Representative Ray Sansom

Hari needs tar and feathering because of his whining about potential cuts to the budget while he (well maybe not) is Senate President.

Since everyone on this blog is a state employeee in some capacity, it you all who need the tar and feathering for wasting the people's money wasting time during your work hours.

3:30- How is it spin? Seriously, help me out. Rubio chose to take the Senate position. How is it not accurate?

4:27

Sorry, not me. I'm a special interest lobbyist and paid political hack posting things on here to spread disinformation and trying to facilitate the confution and general voter apathy that results by making the average voter feel like govenment isnt doing anything to help them and they can't do anything to change it. I'm not wasting State $$$$$ at all, just the large corporations that really run this country's money.

Yeh, but still...

Rollback taxes and spending to 2002 levels, expand SOH to ALL property both residential and commercial, and vote every incumbent out of office.

Problem Solved!

2:56-
they aren't elected. That's the problem genius.

[Proletariat Paul]

We should tax not just property, but ALL investments. Spread the wealth around.

Not me either 4:27, I'm a curmudgeonly retiree-transplant whose grandchildren remain one paycheck away from homelessness in one of the many Rustbelt eyesores up North. I don't give a squat about educating today's young people or "saving the environment" if it means the ridiculous increase in the value of my home will actually be assessed. I could go on but the earlybird special ends soon and I have to go drive slowly in the left lane with my blinker on for two miles.

taxes do not spread wealth. capitalism you see does a great job of creating wealth but distributes it unequally. Socialism on the other hand creates poverty and does a bang up job of spreading it around.

I hardly find it whining about budget cuts. Haridopolos is concerned, rightly, that the TBRC (who is obviously a big taxing group now - must be for Haridopolos to be against it) is taking away $4 billion and leaving no plan to replace it other than "We'll let someone else deal with it." If they really wanted to cut taxes, why did they kill TABOR?

What we need is accountability for this commission and a long-term outline for relief, not a cut-and-run band-aid "solution". I'm with Mike on this one.

Oink, oink, oink, oink.

The lack of meanful tax reform, the lack of progress on property insurance is the consequence of deliberate planning by the Republican Leadership.

They are turing the "middle class" into the "working poor" one oink at a time.

Remember this November and vote accordingly!!!

Hey Hairy-doofus, you didn't care about the billions that you took from education via amendment one. Have you found the money to hold education harmless, as you promised.

Gee 4:09 you sound like the type of person who wants to tax the guy behind the tree.

What kind of person wants to have an income tax? One that has an income small enough that they do not believe it will be taxed?

You can't believe that tacking on a state income tax deduction will end up helping enough on Federal Income Tax to offset the real cost of paying it especially when you factor in the impact doing so could have by contributing toward pushing people into the AMT.

Establishing an income tax in Florida would be a one state depression waiting to happen. Good thing the State Constitution protects us from that counter productive class warfare.

Eliminate property tax and replace it completely with sales tax sounds a lot better. Who really likes to rent their property rights from the Government?

Maybe Haridopoulos can get another college to pay him ANOTHER $150,000 to write another book that will not get published to detail his efforts on the tax issue. He cares about our taxes unless they go into his pocket.

[Donald Lance]

Under all these sales tax proposals, how are we going to get teachers, police, firemen, EMS, trash collectors, sewer workers, street cleaners, et al, to work for free? There won't be any money left once it goes to Tally. Property taxes are supposed to fall as the values do. If they aren't then pound your local assessor and tell your neighbor to reduce his selling price. All I see here are people who don't want higher property tax but want higher property values. You can't have it both ways guys & dolls.

6:57 -- So you believe property taxes should be tied to property values and so the answer is to lower property values so taxes will lower as well?? A better answer would be to repeal SOH and everyone is taxed equally on the value of their home, instead of new and recent homeowners brunting the burden.

[John Donson]

No. I don't believe that but they are! That won't change anytime soon, so where does the answer of equity lie? The real answer is reduced govt spending. That won't change anytime soon either!

Under SOH every homeowner is taxed equally on their home. The rate is initial assessed value + 3% per year.

Why repeal SOH? It is a great tax-savings benefit to homowners???

[John Donson]

How is paying an additional 3% a year a good idea? It's called compound interest. You know how that works right?

Dear 6:54 p.m.

I do want a state income tax, but it will never happen here. I also am quite sure that I make more money than you do.

Floridian's are in the top half of states in TOTAL tax burden, but this is largely because of our federal taxes where we are a HUGE donar state to the federal budget even with one of the largest groups of elderly collecting SS and other programs. Our total combined local and state tax burdens are among the lowest in the country. The biggest reason for this is because of relying on sales taxes instead of an income tax for most of our general revenue which is normally not deductable.

Review this link and get back to me.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/447.html

wrong 1:17 -- longtime homeowners have thousands of dollars sheltered from tax, while new and recent buyers have zero with no hope of every accumulating any value sheltered from tax for sometime to come due to the declining market. Thus we have longtime homeowners paying at a rate of 1/2% or less on the value of their home, while new and recent buyers pay 2%. Same home, same value, different taxes.

If longtime homeowners paid a little more, new and recent buyers (including our children buying their first home) could pay considerably less. Then we'd have a fair system.

I would come up with a Crist/Rubio method of pandering to the lowest common denominator on this issue, but the reality is that state and local governments provide services that I use while my federal taxes go into a black hole.

Changing our tax structure with the goal of lowering our overall burden while maximizing (increasing) the services available in my city, county, school district and state would seem to be a good goal to me.

continuation to 1:31

Of course the reality is that unless SOH is ruled unconstitutional, it will never be repealed. This takes us back to the beginning....how do we give relief to those burdened the most? Our legislature couldn't figure that out and now they are trying to prevent the TBRC from resolving the problem as well. Bottom line, A1 was a smoke screen to minimize the impact on budgets as much as possible and pacify only those enjoying low taxes already that want to move. All others, grin and bear it because someone has to pay and it might as well be you....that man behind the tree! When Crist promised to cut property taxes, he didn't mean you!

Vote out all democrats for blocking relief.

[John Donson]

Vote to end votes because they already took away your freedoms. The only thing you have left are t.v. and internet posts.