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In a state capitol where "reform" is good and "tax" is bad, nothing is more apt to clear a meeting room than a combined utterance of the two. "Tax reform" is the political equivalent of a bomb threat these days, sending lawmakers scrambling to the exits.
So here's an early bulletin for the constitutionally mandated Taxation and Budget Reform Commission of 2007: Florida TaxWatch says the commission should focus mainly on the budget. Never mind that Taxation is its first name.
This is hardly surprising. Florida TaxWatch is among the many business-affiliated groups that have fought attempts in the past decade to bring some basic fairness to the way the state taxes its people. And why shouldn't they? Florida has no income tax, an anemic corporate tax, a disappearing estate tax, and some 440 exemptions and loopholes in its sales tax that serve mostly monied interests. Those with businesses and wealth do just fine. Those who give to the state six pennies on every dollar at the cash register pick up the difference.
The funny part of this tax debate is that people on both sides, when pressed, acknowledge the inequities in the current sales tax. Three years ago, TaxWatch itself identified 100 tax breaks worth roughly $1-billion that it considered worthy of repeal. Somehow, that report has never made its way to the top of the group's annual legislative agenda.
The reality is that the Legislature is so compromised by its business ties that the only realistic chance for sales tax reform is through the ballot. But TaxWatch has unleashed its fury against a citizens group led by former Senate President John McKay that is collecting petitions. And now it has released a report calling on the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission "to follow the lead of the 1990 commission and focus on spending and budget reform first." In other words, the tax stuff can wait.
The commission, whose members will be appointed by the governor and legislative leaders, was created in large part because of the business influences that have made the subject of taxation so taboo in the Legislature. Whether it ultimately will recommend any substantive changes to the sales tax is doubtful. But to see the business steering currents begin so early is instructive. When it comes to Florida's regressive, antiquated, inequitable tax structure, businesses love the status quo.