Florida is already a low tax state, yet Gov. Rick Scott when he unveils his budget proposals next week is expected to keep a campaign pledge to cut corporate and property taxes, by slashing spending on vital services in education, health care and the prison system, even as the state faces a $3.5 billion budget gap.
According to a just-released report by the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, a Tallahassee-based independent research group, in addition to already having low taxes when compared to other states, Florida corporations over time, have been paying less and less as a percentage of total state income. Consequently, declining revenues have led to Floridians receiving a low level of public services necessary for maintaining a decent quality of life and as required under Florida’s Constitution.
Staff of the House Finance and Tax Committee told committee members last month that “Florida is not a high-tax state”, and cited rankings from the nonpartisan Federation of Tax Administrators, showing Florida’s state tax revenue as 43rd among the states per capita and 46th as a percentage of personal income, according to the report. When state taxes are combined with local taxes Florida ranks 27th per capita and 37th as a percentage of personal income.
Ignoring what the data show and advice from government professionals, Scott and the GOP-led legislature are determined to balance the budget on the backs of moderate-income and poorer Floridians who are already paying a larger share of the costs of state services.
Over the past decade, the state has foregone $12 billion with the elimination of taxes on accumulated wealth, and implementation of other regressive taxes has made Florida’s tax system the second-worst in the country, in terms of fairness. Currently, the state now loses $2 billion annually in estate tax revenues and other intangibles paid mostly by the wealthy.
“Those uncollected revenues could have been put to work meeting vital state needs. Instead, other Floridians have been asked to share more of the load: Even in a “no new taxes” environment, taxes and fees paid disproportionately by less affluent Floridians were increased by $2 billion annually in 2009,” the report states.
Scott and other political leaders should think long and hard before continuing to jeopardize the state’s ability to pay for vital public services–education, health care, transportation, law enforcement, courts, prisons and more–and shifting the burden, yet again, to those who can least afford to pay.
There is a better way–close the tax loopholes to raise the required revenues and begin reforming Florida’s tax structure. This would minimize cuts in services and make the tax system more fair, the report concludes.
Read the Whole Report Here.
