Sunday Column: Don't Tax My Money. Yours, However...

One of the first things I learned in Tallahassee was a rhyme about tax politics:

Don't tax you, don't tax me,
Tax the fellow behind that tree.

It's always been that way. It's that way right now, in our debate over property taxes and who should pay them.

Really, there are two separate questions. We keep mixing them up.

The first question is simply how much government should tax, period. Most folks lately agree that local taxes have risen too much.

The second question is who should pay less and who should pay more. This is where it starts getting harder.... [rest of column]