And replace them with??? States need income, and lots of it, for schools, transportation infrastructure, emergency services (no hurricanes in Florida right?), and many other essential aspects of society that don’t generate profit so business won’t take on (unless paid for by government with a profit margin added on). The only way he could pull this off is by raising sales taxes and other taxes, so let’s hear his specific plans for what those are…and please, no budget gimmicks such as, “the cuts will spur so much growth that they will pay for themselves.” This has never worked in the past and won’t now.
We operate a very successful property commercial property rental and self-storage business in California and property taxes, although relatively high here, are a small dent in our overall operations budget — so would I open a business in Florida just because they do away with property taxes? Absolutely not! The worry about diminishing services in the state, not to mention larger and more frequent hurricanes due to climate change, more than offset the savings we might see from the elimination of property taxes.
Norman Rutherford
