[kwflconch]

What do u think of the new tax plan? Do u think its better or worse than the previous one? Also try to come up with your own plans that might work.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by kwflconch

What do u think of the new tax plan? Do u think its better or worse than the previous one? Also try to come up with your own plans that might work.

It needs to have something that deals with non homesteaded and commercial property. Other wise it is half a$$ed. What good is a state you can't afford to invest in, it's crazy.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by kwflconch

What do u think of the new tax plan? Do u think its better or worse than the previous one? Also try to come up with your own plans that might work.

My understanding is that the new plan, basically speaking, doubles the exemption from $25k to $50k and preserves SOH, plus it offers special breaks to seniors and the poor.

I interpreted the original plan as a ruse by the politicians to phase out SOH in return for only temporary relief that in the long run would have proven to be as worthless as the $25,000 exemption is today, and without the 3% ceiling to boot.

The new proposal for a $50,000 exemption is only a bit less worthless.

While I agree that the 3% ceiling must be preserved, I believe that the exemption should be based on a percentage of assessed value, not some arbitrary figure: we will continue to have massive inflation in the US, so any fixed figure they set will become meaningless in several years (50k is, for the most part, already meaningless), so it needs to be a percentage of assessed value to remain meaningful over time.

Look, US residents, with many Florida residents at the head of the pack, are living beyond their means - the gutting of the low/medium-tech manufacturing base, the contradictions among zoning, transport and energy/foreign policies, chaotic health care and education finance, the spread of home-debtorship (home "ownership" has become a joke) etc. - so taxes will have to remain high to support runaway spending, either local taxes or federal taxes or both.

We can all play at being arm-chair policymakers, but the fact is that the ruling classes have no interest right now in even publicly identifying the underlying causes of middle-class distress.