By Michael C. Bender, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau In Print: Thursday, January 13, 2011
Rightardia predicted that most of Rick Scott's election promises were political BS.
We didn't think he would be able to cut taxes because the GOP has been in power for 12 years in Florida and it has already cut taxes to a level that makes the state government unsustainable.
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott's plan to deeply cut taxes hit its first snag, Republican Senate President Mike Haridopolos.
The Merritt Island Republican, who once helped assemble a cadre of antitax lawmakers to fight spending increases, said budget writers in the Senate were "struggling" to account for a shortfall in tax collections that is now approaching $4 billion. Haridopolos said:
Yet Scott told his fellow Republicans in the Senate there was no difference between their agendas.
Less than 24 hours later, Scott heard differently on his own tax cut plan.
"We're going to deal with the deficit," Scott said Wednesday. "But the way to get the state back to work is reducing property taxes and phasing out the business tax."
Tax cuts are an integral piece of Scott's 7-7-7 plan, and his overly optimistic campaign promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years.
Those 7 million jobs jobs are in addition to the 1 million new jobs that state economists already expect to come to Florida during the same time when people outside of the state retire in Florida.
Rightardia suspects this emigration to Florida will be lower than normal because of economic distress in other parts of the US.
Some of these "empty nester's" will delay retirement and others will have difficulty selling their homes.
Scott's plan calls for phasing out corporate income taxes. The 5.5 percent tax rate would be reduced to 3 percent in the first year at a cost to the state of about $835 million.
Rightadia has mentioned that only 5,000 Florida corporations pay Florida corporate income tax because S-corporations are exempt.
Scott also wants to cut property taxes by $1.4 billion this year which does not appear to be feasible.
He said the state could save $1.4 billion from state pension changes by measures such as requiring state workers to contribute to their retirement fund.
The 7-7-7 plan also identified $1.8 billion in savings from Medicaid reform and another $500 million by making state government more efficient.
So far Scott's campaign promises have yet to be translated into specific legislative proposals.
Haridopolos, however, signaled that the Senate is not waiting for Scott to start assembling the budget, which is the one bill state lawmakers are required to pass each year.
Sen. David Simmons, chairman of the Senate K-12 budget committee, said he wanted legislative changes to the state's constitutional requirement to limit the number of students in each class. The state has already tried this three times and it was voted down.
Republicans wrote an amendment that requires a super-majority, 60 per cent of the voters, to change the FL constitution.
This ended up biting the GOP in the ass during the last attempt to modify the class size amendment. The class size amendment was passed in 2002. See http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php
/Florida_Class_Size,_Amendment_8_%282010%29
Scott also wants to issue vouchers to any Florida family that has children in public school. He is likely to be challenged in court if he tires to implement that plan.
Scott has also put road improvements across the state on hold. This will put thousands of construction workers on unemployment.
Scott has no mandate and barely beat his Democratic opponent, Alex Sink, in the gubernatorial race.
Scot's overreaching grasp appears to exceed his reach.
Times/Herald reporters Marc Caputo and Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this story. Michael C. Bender can be reached at mbender@sptimes.com.
Follow him on Twitter @MichaelCBender.
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA
Netcraft rank: 6537 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
We didn't think he would be able to cut taxes because the GOP has been in power for 12 years in Florida and it has already cut taxes to a level that makes the state government unsustainable.
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott's plan to deeply cut taxes hit its first snag, Republican Senate President Mike Haridopolos.
The Merritt Island Republican, who once helped assemble a cadre of antitax lawmakers to fight spending increases, said budget writers in the Senate were "struggling" to account for a shortfall in tax collections that is now approaching $4 billion. Haridopolos said:
Tax cuts are not part of our equation at this point.
Yet Scott told his fellow Republicans in the Senate there was no difference between their agendas.
Less than 24 hours later, Scott heard differently on his own tax cut plan.
"We're going to deal with the deficit," Scott said Wednesday. "But the way to get the state back to work is reducing property taxes and phasing out the business tax."
Tax cuts are an integral piece of Scott's 7-7-7 plan, and his overly optimistic campaign promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years.
Those 7 million jobs jobs are in addition to the 1 million new jobs that state economists already expect to come to Florida during the same time when people outside of the state retire in Florida.
Rightardia suspects this emigration to Florida will be lower than normal because of economic distress in other parts of the US.
Some of these "empty nester's" will delay retirement and others will have difficulty selling their homes.
Scott's plan calls for phasing out corporate income taxes. The 5.5 percent tax rate would be reduced to 3 percent in the first year at a cost to the state of about $835 million.
Rightadia has mentioned that only 5,000 Florida corporations pay Florida corporate income tax because S-corporations are exempt.
Scott also wants to cut property taxes by $1.4 billion this year which does not appear to be feasible.
He said the state could save $1.4 billion from state pension changes by measures such as requiring state workers to contribute to their retirement fund.
The 7-7-7 plan also identified $1.8 billion in savings from Medicaid reform and another $500 million by making state government more efficient.
So far Scott's campaign promises have yet to be translated into specific legislative proposals.
Haridopolos, however, signaled that the Senate is not waiting for Scott to start assembling the budget, which is the one bill state lawmakers are required to pass each year.
Sen. David Simmons, chairman of the Senate K-12 budget committee, said he wanted legislative changes to the state's constitutional requirement to limit the number of students in each class. The state has already tried this three times and it was voted down.
Republicans wrote an amendment that requires a super-majority, 60 per cent of the voters, to change the FL constitution.
This ended up biting the GOP in the ass during the last attempt to modify the class size amendment. The class size amendment was passed in 2002. See http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php
/Florida_Class_Size,_Amendment_8_%282010%29
Scott also wants to issue vouchers to any Florida family that has children in public school. He is likely to be challenged in court if he tires to implement that plan.
Scott has also put road improvements across the state on hold. This will put thousands of construction workers on unemployment.
Scott has no mandate and barely beat his Democratic opponent, Alex Sink, in the gubernatorial race.
Scot's overreaching grasp appears to exceed his reach.
Times/Herald reporters Marc Caputo and Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this story. Michael C. Bender can be reached at mbender@sptimes.com.
Follow him on Twitter @MichaelCBender.
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA
Netcraft rank: 6537 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
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