BlogWood: MT Archives

Jeb! is right - we need property taxes

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has the money quote in today’s throwaway Tribune article on the proposed property tax amendment. The article mentions nothing new, but here’s Iorio:

``I'm sure that when presented with an opportunity to decrease one's property taxes, most people think that sounds good,'' Iorio said. ``But I also think most people will think it through. They like having that park down the street. They like having the police come. They like having the fire department arrive on the scene. That's why they're paying these taxes.''

Surprisingly enough, even Jeb! is against this amendment, which means it must be pretty bad, and probably makes it the one issue on November’s ballot that we will agree on. (Actually, Jeb! probably hates the idea of having his hands tied by the voters and thus having a more difficult time cutting state services and taxes, but his motives aren’t important just now.)

In April, someone forwarded me an email from the tax cut supporters - those people who do not support police or fire protection or libraries or parks - and I posted the following (reprinted in full - it’s brief enough.)

From April 12 BlogWood:

I just got an email calling for my support to lower my property taxes. This particular proposal aims to double the homestead property tax exemption to $50,000.

Wow, what a great idea! I want lower taxes. Lets take a look at the tax cut website and see what this is all about. Here is the meat of the pitch:

Even with the property tax cut local governments have adequate revenues as a result of tremendous property appreciation over the past decade. They have more than they need. This will ensure that we reduce government waste by returning money to the taxpayer. Property taxes levied in Florida have increased 78% in the past 10 years. Meanwhile population has gone up only 21% during the same period. So, property taxes have increased three times faster than population giving local governments an additional $8 billion of our tax money.

Wait a minute. This argument is vastly oversimplified and possibly just plain wrong.

If you think local governments have adequate revenues, then why are schools going unbuilt. Why are public facilities under staffed and poorly maintained? Where is the money to pay for this tax cut going to come from? Increased regressive sales taxes, or just lots of new development?

There are no citations here, but even if we take Paul’s word on the 78% and 21% numbers, we must take into account the massive housing bubble fueled by ultra low interest rates. Factor in population increase, new development, and inflation, and those numbers start to look downright normal. Soon, housing prices and the property taxes that are based on those prices will both level off.

Another thing: The Save Our Homes amendment caps property tax increases at 3% annually. This means that a homeowner in Florida is protected against the whims of a fast rising real estate market. This amendment has been around since 1995 and works beautifully.

Most people have an instinctive reaction to support a measure like this one, but the reality is that conservative types have been trying to starve government for years. They would like nothing better than to de-fund government to the point that it basically ceases to act in any capacity for the common good. No schools. No parks. None of the things that only government can provide and which, in fact, government often does a very efficient job in providing, as long as it is given the funding necessary to do an adequate job.

I’ll give Steve Koppelman the final word:

Though we've been trained to be "anti-tax", I think most people if asked would say the want schools with permanent classrooms and pencils and paper in the supply closets and an encyclopedia published sometime after Eisenhower's first term, and that they want county hospitals (albeit better-run ones), smooth roads, the sidewalks and planted medians that increase their property values, and the parks with the green soccer fields and the lakes without garbage in them that (again) increase their own property values.

People seem to like that big, white concrete-and-glass regional library with its friendly research staff, its patient computer-lab attendants, its wide selection of recently-published books, and its big parking lot filled to capacity every afternoon with cars and SUVs. The families in there are homeowners and taxpayers nearly to the last. These things don't come from the Library Bunny or pixie dust, and these days they rarely come from the state or the feds. They come from local taxes. Be careful what you ask for.