That describes the 64% of Florida voters who voted to approve the bogus property tax “reduction” amendment on January 29. This was the brainchild of Charlie Crist, the Governor Of All The People (“GOATP”), that he claimed would make taxes drop like a rock.  Right.

However, that Amendment will NOT cause property taxes to drop like a rock – are you listening Charlie Crist?  Instead the GOATP succeeded in conning the voters and there’s real potential that it will result in destroying any possible solutions to excessively high property taxes, much less any real reduction in property taxes.  Hey, give the GOATP credit.  Now he has a great opportunity to promote himself as a “tax cutter” in his campaign to be the Republican vice presidential candidate.  Make no mistake, that is and has been his ultimate objective because he actually sees himself as President of the U. S. and this takes him one step closer to his objective of getting elected to national office.
 

Remember one of his first acts as the GOATP was signing a change in Florida law that allows a politician to run for office while retaining their his/her job - even when they lose!  Obviously the GOATP is not much of a betting man and surely wouldn’t risk his day job.  Actually, if he’s out there traveling coast to coast in a presidential election campaign his absence from Tallahassee won’t change very much since he’s been away on a number of extended road trips, both national and international, since he assumed office.

So the public gets screwed again and may have blown any hope for real property tax relief.  Of course the GOATP and his pals in Tallahassee will tell you that they did what they promised and 64% of the voters “agreed” with them by approving a property tax reduction that will average $240 a year, or $20 a month, or 66 cents a day!  Yo Rubes!  Knock yourselves out because you surely can’t buy a burger, much less a soft drink for 66 cents.  However, it is possible that some bright bulbs think that this tax “reduction” is the equivalent of dropping like a rock since this is the first such tax “reduction” in their memory.

Meanwhile this makes the job of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission even more challenging and less likely to come up with any meaningful proposals since a lot of bright bulbs settled for a mere pittance of a tax “reduction”.  Meeting for the first time in about 20 years, the members of that Commission have to ask themselves if they’re not just wasting their time since the voters were so easy to please.  Some might conclude that voters are sending a message that having accepted what amounts to a drop in the bucket they really don’t care.  And that means Florida will miss a real opportunity to turn things around in the state.

In his post election “analysis” in the January 30 edition of the St. Petersburg Times, Steve Bosquet, Tallahassee Bureau Chief for the Times, shines a spotlight on the real problem: “The state faces a $2-billion shortfall, universities are planning faculty layoffs and enrollment caps and Crist somehow promises to boost spending on public schools without increasing taxes.” (Emphasis added)  Is there a better example of a con man in action?

This kind of analysis is a Reality Check for every voter who chose to ignore the reality of the GOATP’s bogus “tax reduction”.  However, almost two-thirds of Florida voters were so short sighted that they deliberately ignored the seriousness of the challenges faced by every resident and business in the state, i.e., the economy of the entire state. They actually proved that they could be bought off for 66 cents a day.  Good grief!  Is that our price?

If so, we haven’t begun to see the ultimate effects of this kind of dishonesty on the part of politicians, all of whom really do know better.  Reality Check – as a result of this terrible mistake on the part of voters, we will continue to see the housing market in the doldrums, with taxes continuing to increase because there’s nothing in what was approved that prevents property taxes from continuing to go up, which will cause property values to continue to decline, and which could lead to a real statewide recession that will affect everyone - homeowners, renters, non-residents and business owners.  No one will escape the effects of that kind of recession.

When this does happen and people ask, “how did this happen?” remember it’s because 64% of the voters sold their votes for 66 cents a day.

And that’s a Reality Check.
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Contact Dan Calabria at www.realitychecktimes.com 

Last Updated ( Mar 03, 2008 at 12:41 AM )