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The property tax cuts of Desantis would be crippled by the local government


The elimination of the property tax goes far beyond all sections that are realized by combating the proverbial waste, fraud and abuse. It most likes to increase another tax to compensate for the lost income.

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Governor Ron Desantis has begun to talk about the removal of property taxes for Florida homeowners.

I don't think he really means. For the beginning it would make Florida the only state that has no property tax.

And if it were enacted, it would hit a considerable hole in the budget in Florida that had to replace a new or expanded tax – and he doesn't talk about it.

So I would only cure this on an empty political attitude. Again.

Nevertheless, it is fun to hear him how it comes from property tax, as if it were a new evil deep steel conspiracy he has just discovered and is angry with his implementation.

“Is it your property or not to only stand on your real estate year after year, you have to write a check to the government every year,” he said last week. “So you basically pay rent to the government to live on your own property.”

Oh, the outrage of everything! He worked up to a solid 9 on the fake Rancor scale.

Desantis leaves the part that her property has a public school nearby, which enables all children there. And if you call “911” from your property, you will receive a police car, an ambulance or a fire engine within minutes to react to your individual emergency.

Or that your property has a public library nearby for your use and a sewage system that keeps your property from it, flooded and treated water on the water collars on your property and nearby, in which you and your neighbors can play, and garbage trucks that do not have to allow all of your waste blade to your property and pull the Unmini.

Why is Desantis suddenly interested in property tax?

I think Desantis has to talk about Home sites during some imaginary border days. Yes, the fake confusion is deep.

It also suggests that it is absurd to assess how much your property is worth for tax purposes.

“The reality is that you don't really know how much your home is worth until someone offers you money and is ready to draw the trigger for a sale.” You can say that it is worth so much, but if nobody is ready to offer you so much, why should you pay taxes for this amount? “

So is the tax zero until you sell it?

Removal of property taxes was a rather delayed revelation for Desantis. After all, he spent a lengthy 12-year-old phase-six-year in the US congress and another six years as a governor-without the abolition of property tax.

And now we will believe that it is suddenly at the top of his to-do list.

As I said, I don't think so. The numbers do not add up either.

The legislators of the state have already nagged Florida on the sidelines of property taxes. The Florida Save Our Homes Assessment Limitation The annual increases in property taxes and is one of almost a dozen tax breaks already issued.

The Florida Policy Institute calculates the elimination of property taxes in the amount of 43 billion US dollars in the state budget, which corresponds to USD $ 2.015 per person.

The property tax raised for homeowners amazes the budgets of cities and counties by almost 30%and accounts for about half of the money for local schools.

The removal of this source of income goes far beyond all outbreaks that are realized by combating the proverbial waste, fraud and abuse. It most likes to increase another tax to compensate for the lost income.

The removal of property tax has many wavy effects

And Florida's options are limited. There is no state income tax to type. And in 2006 the legislature killed the so -called intangible tax, a tax on shares and bonds that could have been raised a few billion dollars a year.

This is the state sales tax, which is now 6%.

“If the political decision -makers remove property taxes and replace them with higher consumption taxes (i.e. sales taxes), they would have to double the general sales tax rate of the state,” said the Florida Policy Institute.

The institute said that doubling the state's sales tax to 12% – which would make Florida's sales tax the highest in the nation, would collect about 40 billion US dollars, which is still short, but near the hole, which was caused by the loss of basic taxes.

It would also be a very regressive tax that affects disproportionately Floridians with low to moderate incomes.

And Florida already has the dubious award to be the most regressive tax structure in the nation, since the Institute for Taxing and Economic Policy tend to control consumer taxes on gasoline, alcohol and tobacco and not in income tax.

Desantis has already said that he would not support to increase the state's sales tax rate in order to pay the loss of income from the elimination of property tax.

“Well, I am pretty sure that the legislator would not increase sales tax, and I'm pretty sure that I would take a veto increase,” he wrote on social media.

In this case, I am pretty sure that all of these conversations about the termination of property taxes without credible and sufficient committees for the lost income are the legislative equivalent of sweets for dinner.

Nothing to see, people. Only more political theater.

Frank Cerabino is a news columnist at the Palm Beach Post, which is part of the USA Network-Florida. It can be reached at fcerabino@gannett.com.