Republican political opportunism. That, in a nutshell, is the Sunshine State’s worst and not so well hidden tax burden.
Two stories that broke in recent days help highlight the shameful mess that the Florida GOP has made of both the state’s economy, and its tax code.
Some will object to such finger pointing, claiming it’s the national economic crisis that put Florida in the financial pickle it’s in. That would constitute a half-truth, at very generous best - as would any attempt to argue that the Democrats are equally responsible for the state’s unfair, dysfunctional tax system and the havoc it has created for working and unemployed families.
Florida businesses learned early this week that their unemployment taxes will be twelve times higher next year,to make up for a shortfall in funding caused by double-digit unemployment, legislative paralysis in Tallahassee, a leadership vacuum in the Governor’s office, and prior tax rates low enough to be "business friendly", to say the least (while also helping make Florida one of the stingiest states in its level of unemployment benefit payments).
Even worse, this news comes just months after Republicans in the state legislature turned down nearly 450-million dollars worth of Federal stimulus funds that would have provided thousands more struggling Floridians with unemployment benefits. The GOP cover story for shamelessly pandering to their emergent Tea Party "base" involved claiming that if they took and used the money now and then opted out of the program later, they’d have to return the money to the Feds - a deceitful claim that has since been debunked.
The whole chain of events illustrates how Republican economic and tax policies have combined with rabid partisan political gamesmanship to make these hard times even harder for so many small businesses and displaced workers - their own constituents - struggling to survive this endless Bush-Cheney recession.
Then just days after the exploding unemployment tax story broke, a Washington, D.C. think tank, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy issued a major report on how each of the fifty states in our union rank when it comes to tax fairness. Much like its infamous bottom-tier ranking in Education, but worse, Florida comes in 49th out of 50 when it comes to having an equitable tax system. Let’s all give a shout-out to Washington State for saving us from ever so slightly worse shame.
Without going into too much detail, here’s the key statistic. Florida’s poorest citizens, those with annual incomes under $10,500— pay an average of over 13-percent of that income in taxes, while the richest folks, those with incomes over $2.4-million a year, pay an average of a sliver over 2-percent in taxes.
For anyone not familiar with Florida’s tax system, note that it is one of seven states in America with no income tax on individuals.
Tax policy is one hell of a complex and daunting subject to take on, and a careful and thoughtful analysis of how we got into this mess would require a whole series of articles - and perhaps a stimulant of your choice to stay awake reading them...no, wait a second, I’d never write a boring series of articles, no matter what the subject!
Taxation is simply not a very sexy topic - just one on which the fates of states and nations can rise and fall. But not to worry, I promise I won’t write a Florida tax policy series, so please do come back and visit often.
But first let me wax about tax just a bit more.
The new report released this week underlines the fact that Florida’s state tax system is "regressive", with the far larger, undue tax burden falling on the working poor and whatever is left of the middle class, in the form of sales & use taxes and fees; and to a lesser extent, on property taxes.
But if you want some real red-blooded political regression theory,check out this September, 2009 quote from Florida's empty suit and smile of a flip-flopping governor, Charlie "The Panderer" Crist: "I signed the single largest tax cut in the history of Florida...My state goes back to 1845; the largest tax cut since 1845 in the Sunshine State." The governor talks with pride about taking his state's economic policy back to the mid-19th century - it's no wonder he's doing so well in his Senatorial campaign, eh?
That strategy, developed by Big Business and The Wealthy, then implemented by mostly but not exclusively Republican legislators in their service, stands in stark contrast and opposition to a "progressive" system that would rely more on escalating individual income taxes, higher taxes on corporations (Florida ranks 39th nationally with a 5.5% flat corporate tax rate, regardless of corporate size or income) and the closing of the myriad array of corporate tax loopholes.
Do you think that property taxes, the bane of middle class suburban life, would be such a problem if large corporations and real estate developers in Florida were forced to pay their fair share of taxes, without evasion?
But the Republican Party has done a first-class job of browbeating and brainwashing most people into believing a simplistic, generic lie, that Taxes Are Bad. The corollary to that is the illusory notion carefully cultivated like a prize rose bush in the minds of so many, the idea that in America, there should be no limit, no societal "price-tag" if you will, on the accumulation of vast wealth.
It’s the whole "What’s The Matter With Kansas" (still such an important and relevant book in the age of the Tea Baggers) thing - mostly decent, hard-working people so scared and stressed by an inequitable yet unfathomable economy that they’re easy targets for disinformation and manipulation, against their own economic best interests.
Perhaps if enough more Florida Democrats with Alan Grayson’s "no guts, no glory" attitude can manage to get elected to the state legislature, this awful Republican era of Taxation Without Representation for millions of the state’s jobless and working wounded will finally begin to come to an end.