From the glee that the liberal media is expressing in its “news” stories and editorials about the state budget, you might think they are opposed to higher taxes.
Gov. Rick Scott proposed additional tax relief for next year but during the budget process the Florida Legislature modified Scott's idea – not because of opposition to tax relief, however.
Scott wanted to grant the tax relief to business by increasing the amount school districts are required to collect in local property owners, which the legislature nixed. It will still mean record funding for schools but the increase will come from state funds.
That doesn't necessarily mean higher property taxes in all counties, although that probably would be a result. The local taxes include a component called the “required local effort,” the amount districts must raise to participate in the state funding formula.
That formula gives pupil-rich, property-poor counties more money than other counties, which means it essentially is an income-redistribution scheme so beloved by liberals.
One liberal blogger called it a “stinging defeat” for Scott. That's the point. They are against anything proposed by Scott because they hate him incrementally more than the Republican legislators.
Does anyone imagine for a moment that liberal editorial writers would oppose any local tax increase, especially one for the Black Hole of government schools?
One editorial even noted that the sales tax that Scott wanted to trim was more regressive than property taxes. That's true. The wealthier you are, the more expensive home you have, normally, and the more you pay in taxes.
Scott also wanted to increase the amount the state spends to lure business to Florida. That proposal also was scaled back.
I'm actually with the liberals on that one, being skeptical of the notion that politicians can pick winners. The word “Solyndra” keeps popping up in my head.
Our mutual opposition, however, is from different perspectives. Liberals love to hand out Other People's Money, it is just that they prefer to hand it out exchange for votes rather than to promote growth.
One liberal lunkhead wrote a column in a Tallahassee newspaper citing a bunch of dubious statistics that make it sound as if Florida was economically equivalent to the Republic of Chad. As one example of why we have people lining our pot-holed streets with begging bowls, he cited the alleged fact that we pay state workers less than some other states!
He sought to show that offering tax incentives for business is a waste of time. Yet the state of New York, which he no doubt considers Utopia, is doing the same.
Perhaps Florida's terrible economic plight is the reason the state's population has doubled since 1980, making it the third largest state – a fact liberals constantly deplore.
In any case, the situation demonstrates it is the legislative branch that dictates spending, not the executive. That won't stop the liberals from blaming Scott for whatever they don't like in any fiscal plan the legislature approves, just as they blame conservative presidents for what Congress does.
Consistency is not their strong suit.
Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. After retirement he served as a policy analyst for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
