Florida Is a State, Not a Piggy Bank for Corporations. (Inequality.org)

President Jimmy Carter said America's tax system is "a disgrace to the human race." That was 1977.  

Today, in 2022, 45 years later, the same can be said about our tax system in Florida, second worst in our Nation -- a regressive tax system that asks corporations to benefit from our labor.  

In 1970, Florida elected Reubin O'Donovan Askew as Governor, and adopted a corporate income tax in our State Constitution.  Then corporations and their legislative lackeys adopted a new legal critter -- Limited Liability Companies, which are exempt from corporate income taxes.  Governor Askew's progressive tax system was essentially derailed and destroyed by louche lobbyists.

Voters and courts are rejecting unfair sales taxes and government waste.

But misguided Republican politicians always favor the wealthy and corporations here in Flori-DUH.

Meanwhile, our Boy Governor and legislature pursue an agenda of Kulturkampf, riling up their base.

Meanwhile, our unfair tax system would get worse if voters approve a 15%+ sales tax increase here,

Courageous St. Johns County Commissioner Paul Waldron (with eyeglasses in photo above), rightly dissented from worsening this unfair system.  

But four out of five of our current St. Johns County Commissioners (the ordinarily logical fair-minded Chairman I. Henry Dean, and other-directed colleagues JEREMIAH BLOCKER, SARAH ARNOLD and CHRISTIAN WHITEHURST voted to favor developers by picking your pockets,  putting an extravagant 15%+ sales tax increase on the November 8, 2022 ballot for "infrastructure."

The County Commission's 2022 tax increase discussion was unadorned by any self-insight or efforts to improve the quality of our mismanaged County government:

• no body-worn cameras and no dashboard cameras for Sheriff's deputies,
• no Ombudsman to protect the public interest, 
• no truly independent Inspector General with whistleblower protections,
• no checks and balances on County Administrator's largely unchecked powers, 
• no lobbyist registration, 
• no County Ethics Commission, 
• no Charter Review Commission, 
• no Environmental Review Commission, 
• no legislative staff for Commissioners,
• no restoration of non-agenda public comment rights at the beginning of meetings.

We saw how local burghers manipulated 2015 off-year special election passage of a half-penny sales tax increase "for the schools" was really "for the developers."

Corporate welfare is the number one priority of Florida Republicans and those who own and control that party.  

It is especially vicious and vacuous here in St. Johns County, wealthiest county in the State of Florida, where money is doled out to unnecessary "incentives" for corporations, while very little is done to alleviate government-caused inequality and suffering by poor and working people here.

In 2015, greedy, land-raping developers "worse than any carpetbagger," as for Commission Chair Ben Rich, Sr. once called them, were relieved of some $150,000,000.00 to $200,000,000.00 in impact fees and property taxes over ten years -- a rate of return of at least 33,200% on their $87,000 investment in a propaganda campaign for a one-issue 2015 ballot.

When impact fees were last revised in 2018:

• developers were given "credit" for taxes they did not pay -- the sales tax increase!
• no impact fees were required for commercial development, based upon spurious logic of wanting to encourage more commercial development.

Our County does not employ a full-time economist.

In framing maladroit impact fee schemes, our County has repeatedly hired a retired law professor, who is not a lawyer, but a conflicted economist who worked for landowners.

Our County government listens to what it calls "stakeholders," truly"snakeholders," devotees of corporate oligarchy.

Our squalid County government satraps deserve to hear from us loud and clear.

When you see developer-caused ugliness, clogged roads, deforestation, wildlife killing, wetland-filling, and metastatic "growth," remember the cause: massive statewide corruption from developer$' campaign ca$h.   

When you get your 2022 ballot, you will know what to do.

Vote no on sales tax increase.  

Tell your Commissioners and legislators we want tax reform, not further tax deform.

Enough flummery, dupery and nincompoopery from the JERMIAH BLOCKERs of the world, unjust stewards serving the interests of oligarchs and oligopolists. 

From Inequality.org:

Florida Is a State, Not a Piggy Bank for Corporations

Corporate influence has saved the top 1 percent of businesses in Florida an estimated $3.7 billion over 4 years. Residents are fed up – and making it known.

RESEARCH & COMMENTARY

MARCH 18, 2022

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by Thomas Kennedy

The Florida Legislature has a quirky tradition to mark the end of its annual legislative session. As the chambers wrap up their final vote, the sergeant-at-arms of both the Senate and the House of Representatives meet outside and drop handkerchiefs. Afterwards, the governor and legislative leaders deliver speeches. 

This year, advocates and organizers fighting to create a more equitable Florida interrupted this ceremony. Instead of handkerchiefs, they dumped 10,000 fake hundred dollar bills on Governor Ron DeSantis and other lawmakers who preside over corrupt corporate giveaways and pro-business policies at the expense of working class Floridians.

Rather than addressing urgent needs like properly funding affordable housing or public education, the recently-passed budget includes a whopping $624 millionrefund to wealthy corporations.

The Florida Legislature rubber-stamping a pro-corporate agenda is history repeating itself.

In 2018, then-Governor Rick Scott signed into law HB 7093, which lowered the corporate income tax rate from 5.5 to 4.458 percent, resulting in $543 million in tax refunds to some of the wealthiest companies in the state. This money was paid out in Spring 2020 under DeSantis’ watch, as Florida’s economy cratered in the midst of the Covid-19 outbreak. In 2019, the majority-Republican Florida legislature passed HB 7127, which extended corporate tax refunds for two more years, resulting in the $624 million payout to corporations in the just-passed budget. Gov. DeSantis and the legislature could have stopped these giveaways – but chose not to. 

Last year, lawmakers approved $1 billion in new tax collections from consumers while leaving corporate tax evasion tactics untouched. As a result, 99 percent of Florida companies pay no corporate income tax due to easily exploited loopholes. Altogether, HB 7093 and HB 7127 have saved the top 1 percent of businesses in Floridaan estimated $3.7 billion. That’s the equivalent of nearly two decades of spending on affordable housing. Housing costs are  increasing more in Florida than anywhere else in the country: rents have skyrocketed in Miami and Orlando by 39 and 20 percent respectively. Imagine if those billions had been invested in solving this crisis instead of lining already wealthy pockets.

GET THE FACTS

Wealth Inequality

This exorbitant amount of taxpayer dollars going to companies making record profits is bad enough on its own – but Florida’s business lobby didn’t stop there. Despite DeSantis’ supposed priority to impose strong new data-privacy protections on companies, special interests managed to kill that bill for a second year in a row. Corporate interests also successfully passed what has been called the “mother of all preemptions,” allowing corporations to sue local governments if they pass an ordinance that impacts at least 15 percent of their profits. Teams of corporate lawyers will soon be able to potentially stop wage theft ordinances, minimum wage raises, anti-pollution initiatives, and other laws that would benefit working Floridians.

It’s easy to see how cozy relationships between elected officials like DeSantis and corporate elites influence public policy. Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire chairman of Interactive Brokers, has donated $250,000 to the Governor’s political action committee, and openly calls DeSantis “my favorite man.” Citadel’s billionaire owner Ken Griffin also ranks as one of the Governor’s top donors. 

Florida is in dire straits. Only one other state in the nation has a worse ranking on income inequality. Florida is also near the bottom of other state rankings, coming in 48th in tax fairness and 44th in education spending. These results clearly indicate that policies which prioritize corporate interests over Florida taxpayers simply do not work. The Sunshine State cannot continue to operate as a piggy bank for corporations and the ultra-wealthy while millions of its residents are crushed under the weight of stagnant wages and rising costs of living.

Thomas Kennedy is an organizer, writer, and immigrant. You can follow him on Twitter @tomaskenn.