Florida Taxes: Rich Pay Nothing, Workers Support Everyone

Part VII of My Stupid State:
The title of this post says it all. But instead of a "Thank You for bearing all the load", the workers are pissed on, attacked, and lectured on the "need to sacrafice".

On the other hand, because of corporate tax loopholes, the corporations in this state don't pay. We have the highest concentration of rich people here because of three reasons:

1. The rich here don't pay any state income tax
2. Our legislature eliminated the intangibles tax on multimillionaires
3. Although we have a sales tax, it is not for the rich. We eliminated taxes for sales items only they can afford!

This lack of sacrifice is justified by saying they are the "job creators"--even though they aren't hiring. We have the 3rd highest unemployment rate in the nation.

Thanks to our new governor, its going to just get a lot worse.

In less than one month in office, Rick Scott ranks the most unpopular newly elected governor in U.S. history, with a favorability rating of just 28 percent. (Although the WI Scott is giving him a run for his money.)

Rick Scott proposed to absolutely decimate education here in florida, while slashing thousands of government jobs that benefit the most vulnerable among us. He has proposed cuts to every government agency across the board (oh... except his own. He wants to double his own office).

In addition, Florida heroes such as school teachers, health care providers, corrections officers, police and firefighters face severe cuts in pension and health care benefits.

Gutting jobs seems to be all he is good at. Exactly one week later, Mr. "Let's Get to Work" made up lies and then threw away a fully-funded high speed rail project that would have brought tens of thousands of jobs to the state in our construction industry alone--just because he hates Obama. (Even Jeb Bush scratched his head on that one.)

Big surprise: on Monday Governor Skeletor, who up till now has only met and consulted with Teabaggers, lectured a group of corrections officers in Tallahassee on the need to sacrifice. Forgetting that he wasn't talking to his lap dogs, one employee spoke up and hit him with facts (rated truthful from Politifact):

"You said to hold you accountable," the employee, speaking from the audience, said to Scott. "State employees have seen, since the Bush administration, a reduction in state employees. I have been with this agency for many years. And I've seen where our staff has been significantly cut. We are required to do more with less. State employees haven't received a raise in five or six years. You're asking us to contribute to our pension plan and contribute more to our insurance!"

Then he hit him with this nugget:

My question is simple: What have you required for the wealthiest Floridians to contribute to the state revenues?"

Rick Scott took a day to answer-literally. The next day he spoke to another group and started by saying someone had asked him why he didn't want to "tax rich people more." (Yes, he lied again...but get used to it.) He answered his own question by saying he needs to cut taxes for the wealthy so that (get this) rich people will live here and create jobs.

PROBLEM with that, tricky ricky, is that the superwealthy DO live here, including the GOP's richest patrons, like fat-ass Limbaugh.

As I mentioned, the superwealthy love living here because they don't pay any state income tax, our legislature eliminated the intangibles tax on multimillionaires, and we eliminated taxes for sales items only they can afford. Thank God... now they can buy that Yacht, which is tax-exempt by the way.

That's right, the main source of revenue for this state is the sales tax, and by sheer coincidence we exempt most things that only benefit the wealthy. Here are some examples:

-University stadium skyboxes
-Yachts
-High-end legal fees
-Accounting fees
-Charter fishing-boat fees
-Ostrich and racehorse feed
-Complimentary meals served by hotels
-Wine bought for taste testings
-Racing dogs
-Tickets for the Super Bowl

And while lobbyists for special-interests are able to exempt everything from bottled water to space planes, a low-income single dad buying a used pair of kids sneakers gets hit with a 7% sales tax. Its his fault for not being rich.

But these uber-wealthy folks ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT CREATING JOBS. Our unemployment rate is 12%, much higher than the national average. Certain industries it is even worse (construction is at 20%). I guess giving Rush Limbaugh even more money does not mean he's going to hire more people. (He's got all the drug mules he needs, I guess.)

But the hundreds of millions we lose in not having the rich pay taxes is nothing compared to our lousy corporate tax loopholes. 98% of corporations pay nothing! We already have one of the lowest corp. tax rates in the nation, but Rick Scott wants to completely eliminate it. Doesn't matter since some our biggest employers don't pay a dime in corporate taxes anyway. Why should they?

By the way...this costs us over $1 billion a year!

Again, our low corporate tax rate that nobody pays anyway IS OBVIOUSLY NOT CREATING JOBS! That's because we have a severely lacking supportive infrastructure, very low education funding, a very high drop-out rate, high poverty, and a state government that doesn’t know how to govern wisely or effectively. Given Rick's latest decisions, he is making each one of these points even worse.

Businesses are not coming here. The super wealthy already don't pay taxes. But SOMEBODY has got to start plugging this hole.

SO what does Scottie do?

As all teabag governors do.. try to "balance the budget" on the backs of the most vulnerable among us, along with the evil government workers. Over 70% of our state employees make UNDER 40k. So taking from their retirement seems like the logical thing to do in this bizzaro world we live in here.

Then there is the REAL money savings!

Under Scott, here is wasteful spending that needs to be tackled:

-Poor, elderly and disabled citizens would no longer be provided eyeglasses, hearing aids and dentures. (Get a job, freeloaders!)
-Severe cuts in Medicaid (What.... ever)
-Services for abused and disadvantaged children (Buck up, punk!)
-Programs that combat homelessness and suicide prevention would be cut. (Cost savings if they are successful.)
-Florida will no longer cover kidney dialysis or organ-transplant medication. (But if you want to buy a racing dog, we got your back!)
-And, of course, lets not forget to wipe out the Office of the Homeless, which creates programs and shelters for the state's RAPIDLY EXPANDING homeless.

That last one is particularly disturbing. Rick Scott, a billionaire who made his fortune stealing from the elderly really does hate the homeless. He hates them so much it is almost cartoonishly evil:

He wants to end Homelessness Memorial Day... [Laura Hansen, CEO of the Coalition to End Homelessness] said "strikes me as particularly absurd," adding that no state costs were tied to the date.

Nice! Scott is trying to out teabagger the others. (Take that Wisconsin!--NOBODY touches my governor!) My man creates more homeless and THEN kicks them in the stomach by cutting their lifelines. And just for laughs, he takes away a day that only recognizes that homeless people exist, which costs NO money! Next year he plans on urinating on them when they sleep. (Gotta stay on top if you want the teabaggers to stick with you.)

Speaking of sleep.....WAKE UP FLORIDA!