April 25, 2007
Abolishing Property Taxes
TALLAHASSEE FLORIDA Legislature proposed idea of abolishing all property taxes on residential real estate by raising sales taxes. However the legislation as hit gridlock and looks like it will never pass.
The infighting is getting intense. Business owners want in on the cut, politicians don’t want to alienate the voting "poor class," the starkness of the legislation has many frightened, … and many other motives.
Higher sales tax is regressively harsh on poorer taxpayers. The poor get poorer by paying a larger proportion of their income to sales taxes. High property taxes are harsh on working families, young homeowners just getting started in life and the fixed income homeowners. In short, high taxes are a weight around everyone’s neck.
The wrangling about property tax relief and reform seem to get nowhere inasmuch as meaningful talk about belt tightening, cutting entitlement programs and such. Setting their sights on fashioning and embracing a bare-bones government structure are non-existent.
Filed under Florida Property Taxes, Tax Reduction Politics by admin
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Comments on Abolishing Property Taxes »
Kevin @ 2:50 pm
The answer is fairly simple.
If the money has to come from somewhere, it will come from property, sales, or state taxes. Florida doesn't have personal state taxes, but maybe that becomes an option — you get to choose whether you pay state or property tax. The number is the same, but the ramifications are different. It can even be calculated the same exact way and require very little support besides a different mail template to send out.
I think the problem isn't so much the taxes, but that your property is not yours if it can be taken away from you. It's one thing to not pay the bank (from whom you rent from most of the time), but to lose your property to the gov't because you don't/can't pay taxes on it? That's ridiculous.
Sales tax, w/ exceptions for necessities, is the fairest method, but of course the rich get to avoid some of those (and they'll pay more to avoid them…). If you can't afford housing (bring back the renter tax relief), food, and clothing, you really shouldn't be buying cigarettes or flat panel TVs. I know sales tax hurts, but it hurts where it should: obviously and not hidden. The VAT tax in Europe hurts everytime I go over there, but if I lived there, I'd also see the benefits.
Carrie T @ 8:00 pm
I have been looking at property in Florida and trying to research the area. I know that property taxes are out of control but the prices of homes have lowered so much right now that it seems like a good time to buy. Kevin made some good points that everyone should consider.