The fight for tax fairness

Voting Floridians can sign this petition, which seeks to put on the Nov. 2 ballot an amendment requiring the Legislature to review all sales tax exemptions.

The way Florida taxes consumers is so rife with unfairness that few politicians speak on its behalf. Ask if the state should take a look at sales tax freeloaders, and even Gov. Jeb Bush nods his head affirmatively. "I've consistently said it's fine to review exemptions, to look at exemptions from a competitive point of view or an equity point of view," he said recently.

But that's just lip service. Every tax reform effort in the past two decades, including one led two years ago by then-Senate President John McKay, has been mercilessly attacked by the businesses that stand to lose. McKay, a Republican businessman, had asked to cut the sales tax rate from 6 to 4.5 percent for all taxpayers as part of a plan to remove exemptions for some. Yet the governor, and the lawmakers whose campaign pumps are primed by business donations, wouldn't consider it.

That's why McKay, no longer in public office, decided he had to take his case directly to voters.

The amendment, sponsored by McKay's Floridians Against Inequities in Rates (FAIR), has a single objective. It would force the Legislature to own up to the sales tax breaks it grants to some 440 different products and services. Once a decade, beginning in 2007, the Legislature would be required to approve, by a three-fifths vote, each exemption. Without such approval, an exemption would end.

Some lawmakers and business interests already are lining up to attack the amendment. They call it a tax increase in disguise, but that's misleading. First, the amendment is aimed at special-interest tax exemptions. Therefore, it excludes food, prescription drugs, health services, rent, electricity and heating fuel from any scrutiny. Second, the amendment is aimed at public accountability. Therefore, lawmakers could vote to reauthorize all 440 exemptions if they chose. But if they couldn't muster the votes to reauthorize, say, the ostrich feed exemption, then it would die. That's the "tax increase" businesses fear.

Some opponents argue that tax policy shouldn't be prescribed by voter mandate. But this is not about pregnant pigs or bullet trains. The tax system is a basic tool of government, and its provision is already described in some detail in the Constitution. These constitutional purists also criticize the political leverage imposed by the amendment. If the Legislature did nothing at all, then all the exemptions would expire. That possibility is laughably remote, and the very reason the amendment requires an affirmative vote to reauthorize tax exemptions is the reason the amendment is being proffered in the first place. Absent an absolute mandate to consider tax reform, the Legislature does nothing.

In a perfect world, this amendment would be unnecessary. Legislators would be willing, on their own, to analyze the tax structure and to follow the lead of such organizations as Florida TaxWatch, which argues that 125 current exemptions are unwarranted. But McKay knows from harsh experience that lawmakers are not about to bite the hands that hold campaign checks. And that's why we, along with McKay, invite voters to sign a petition.

To put the FAIR amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot, McKay's group needs to collect 488,722 petitions. Already, it has roughly 50,000, which, once certified, would trigger legal review by the state Supreme Court.

The full-scale assault against the FAIR amendment is bound to begin soon. But people who think their taxes are unfair have the right to speak through their signatures on petitions and their votes at the polls. Remember: In this twisted tax system that politicians have resisted changing, Florida now exempts $25-billion in sales tax for every $18-billion it collects. It taxes pet food but not ostrich feed, football tickets but not luxury skyboxes, fishing poles but not charter fishing boats.

These are consequential problems for this state. Every dollar Florida exempts from sales tax is a dollar the rest of us have to pay or a dollar that could go to teach students or build roads or hire law officers. We've included instructions below on how to access this petition because the tax system is broken and will not, in our estimation, be fixed any other way.

Copies of this form are available online at www.fairamendment.com To sign this petition, you must be a registered voter. Simply print and fill out the form completely, sign it, and mail it to: Floridians Against Inequities in Rates FAIR, P.O. Box 13689, Tallahassee, FL 32317.

Opinion

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