It is a tired and hackneyed commentary that nobody likes taxes or that taxation is a necessary evil. The “small government” ideologists in our Florida Legislature would take the essential responsibility of tax policy away from the legislative process to enshrine fiscal limitations on our state in the Florida Constitution. I can think of nothing that could bode an ill economic future than to hamstring the ability of government to raise needed revenues for the education, health and welfare of its people, to develop and maintain infrastructure or to protect the economic viability of the state to meet financial obligations.
The Florida ballot in November will have six amendments that propose to place restrictions upon the state’s ability to raise revenue through taxation. These are Amendments 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11. Not that all six of these proposed amendments are not reasonable and well intended. But, how many in this mix of proposals may pass? Unless stricken from the ballot by the Florida Supreme Court, how many of us, if asked, would vote against tax relief? This is why we elect a legislature. It is the responsibility of our legislators to exercise the fiscal judgment and responsibility necessary to ensure the general welfare of the people and the economic health of the state. It is the Legislature that has the authority to annually determine the state’s revenue needs, tax policies and mechanisms to levy taxes through continuing, altered or new laws of taxation. All six of these proposed taxation related Constitutional amendments, that would divest the legislature of taxation authority, have been sponsored by the Florida legislature. Apparently, nobody told our Florida Legislature’s leadership about the responsibilities of governance.
