When we held our primary, I think more people turned out to vote on Amendment One than they did to actually vote in the presidential primary. The tax cut “guaranteed by law,” was pushed for by Governor Crist, you know, the former Education Commissioner of Florida.
According to its website, yeson1florida.com, the property tax cut will save tax payers nearly ten billion dollars over the course of the next five years. The tax cut is allegedly designed to help you, the common middle-class member, move into a different home with more ease. The entire site is spammed with phrases like, “Will save your money,” “new annual taxes would be about half [the old amount],” “lower your taxes immediately,” and, here’s the ambiguity, “future cuts.”
For those who voted yes, the “future cut” indicates the lower taxes, the fatter wallets, and the possibility of more tax cuts to come! Who would dare to pass up an opportunity as great as this?
More like, who would dare to vote on an issue without looking at the other side?
The tax cut, made to look promising by its supporters, does not entail the damage it will inflict on an already suffering state education system. While our governor believes in “providing every Florida student with the best educational opportunities in the nation,” and that “every hard-earned tax dollar should be spent in a way that will maximize student achievement,” his proposition takes tax dollars away from improving the education system. Public schools will take a projected hit of $204 million with the 2008-2009 school year, and $2.76 billion over the next five. Crist wants the high school graduation rate to be at ninety-five percent by 2015. How can this happen if schools are taking a hit, if schools do not have the funding necessary to purchase new text books and lab equipment to improve science departments?
For those of you who are smiling smugly to yourselves because you heard the state legislature say the education system would not be affected, other taxes will be raised in order to accommodate the cut with the property tax.
Still smiling?
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