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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Sunday, July 10, 2005

Just Another GOP Scam

    The Florida GOP loves to claim how they don't raise our taxes, at least in Tallahassee. For example:
    State lawmakers have slowly shifted the cost of paying for public education away from the state's sales tax toward an increased reliance on property taxes, a shift made easier by a real estate and construction boom.
    It is a scam:
    While state spending on schools has increased, as has overall spending, the share paid by the state with mostly sales tax revenue has dropped from nearly 62 percent six years ago to about 56.5 percent this year. That 5 percent drop represents $800 million this year. That $800 million is part of the $7.1 billion being paid by property owners this year.

    While the state has reduced the tax rate on homes, most tax bills are higher due to increased valuation. And this year Republican lawmakers required counties to raise one particular property tax in order to obtain state money - more than a $100 million hike statewide.

    Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, says Republicans shouldn't crow about cutting taxes on the investments of millionaires while middle class homeowners pay more. "Just because somebody's home is valued more doesn't mean they have the money available" to pay the higher taxes, Gelber said.
    Shift in education funding worries some".

7:27 AM

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