"Myths and Facts" About Tax Reform

The Palm Beach Posts's Randy Schultz fires off a salvo at those who are mischaracterizing the Florida tax reform debate--running through a list of tax "myths" and skewering them with a succint explanation of the facts behind the myth-- and hits (mostly) on all cylinders.

Here's my favorite, not least because it's probably the single most important thing to know about this year's debate:

Myth: The government spending problem is all local, and none of it is the Legislature's fault.
Fact: The state regularly pushes costs, such as juvenile justice, onto the counties. And part of what the school district must levy in property taxes is ordered by the state. The share of state money for schools has been shrinking in recent years, while the local share has been growing. That's how the Legislature can claim to be spending more on schools without raising taxes. If the state wanted to help local government, the state would pay its costs, not dump some of them.

Darn right. The state government has enacted unaffordable tax cuts and paid for them by cutting aid to local governments-- basically daring locals to make the unpopular tax hike decisions state lawmakers have fled from. That, in a sentence, is why property tax administrators are feeling state homeowners' ire.

And here is my least favorite:

Myth: Creating a state income tax would solve the problem.
Fact: Voters would have to change the state constitution, and that isn't going to happen. Not that the idea wouldn't improve the system. Under Save Our Homes, the more expensive the house, the more the owner's increased value is sheltered from taxes. An income tax would be fairer than the current property tax system, but Florida will have an income tax when the University of Florida drops football.

There may be a huge political hill to climb before an income tax can be adopted, but that doesn't mean that the income tax solution is a "myth." Rather, that means that the income tax reform is (for lawmakers) an "inconvenient truth," to coin a phrase. Saying a solution isn't politically feasible doesn't make it any less right.

Read the whole op-ed here.