[JSnFla]

Florida stands to lose $1 billion because of Lehman Brothers' collapse - St. Petersburg Times

the state is a fiscal nightmare. As the actual accounting is done on the economic collapse more realities will be discovered. Services are starting to disappear overnight. The state better start raising massive revenues or the next decade could be a nightmare.

[annerk]

If they got rid of the Save Our homes property tax initiatives and taxed people on what their house is worth now, not 20 years ago, they'd have all the money they need.

[DailyJournalist]

They need to institute a state tax. There is no other solution.

[tallrick]

Cut government to what people can afford. Raising taxes in this economy will be political suicide.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by annerk

If they got rid of the Save Our homes property tax initiatives and taxed people on what their house is worth now, not 20 years ago, they'd have all the money they need.

Originally Posted by DailyJournalist

They need to institute a state tax. There is no other solution.

Originally Posted by tallrick

Cut government to what people can afford. Raising taxes in this economy will be political suicide.

There is no need to remove the SOH nor institute a state tax.

Cut wasteful government spending and we should be able to reduce taxes not raise them.

There is no need for the Supervisor of Elections for my county to make over $100,000 a year nor the commissioners to make $60,000. Just eliminating useless jobs would bring the budget down to where it needs to be. After that we could eliminate the usless programs and get budget down to an more acceptable level.

[stars99]

I agree with you Mike but it seems like the nature of human society and government to have this kind of waste. Create an income tax but keep it low to ease the shock on people.

Originally Posted by Mike Peterson

There is no need to remove the SOH nor institute a state tax.

Cut wasteful government spending and we should be able to reduce taxes not raise them.

There is no need for the Supervisor of Elections for my county to make over $100,000 a year nor the commissioners to make $60,000. Just eliminating useless jobs would bring the budget down to where it needs to be. After that we could eliminate the usless programs and get budget down to an more acceptable level.

[TriMT7]

Why should we create an income tax? We have way less budget deficit than places like NY and CA, BOTH of which have HIGH income tax rates (in addition to other fees and tax rates)... so an "income tax" is merely more fuel to the government's wasteful ways.

[tallrick]

Anyone who supports more taxes is a gullible fool. Unfortunately, Florida now has an abundance of Floridiots. Cutting government is always a good thing although it has never been tried in our lifetimes. Every government expense is a drain on the economy as government is inherently parasitic. The trick is to limit government expenditures to the values of the services they provide to people who can afford them.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

Why should we create an income tax? We have way less budget deficit than places like NY and CA, BOTH of which have HIGH income tax rates (in addition to other fees and tax rates)... so an "income tax" is merely more fuel to the government's wasteful ways.

Because there is plenty of money to be made on property taxes if they were computed in an equitable manner. Instead we have this ridiculous system where people are living in million dollar homes paying $2500 a year in property taxes while people in $250K homes are paying the same amount simply because one moved in 10 years before the other.

[ACTS Mom]

Originally Posted by tallrick

Cut government to what people can afford. Raising taxes in this economy will be political suicide.

Thank you! I was wondering if anyone would suggest cutting something instead of raising taxes. They're already raising taxes but calling it "fees" in many ways.

And our homes are worth about what they were in 2003 or earlier so I don't see how changing the property tax would help any.

Besides that, when I continue to see the waste in State government, county government, and even city government, I can only think they need to cut a bunch of administrative/management positions before expecting the regular taxpayer to support their top-heavy departments.