I don’t try to communicate much with with my unresponsive, county-elected politician, a.k.a., representative, Bill Braswell, but I do read his nonsense in the hyperlocal paper, the Four Corners Sun. Part of the reason I don’t communicate with him is that he doesn’t respond to emails from constituents. Secondly, because Polk County Commissioner Bill Braswell believes his constituents are “naïve” and without imagination.
Bill Braswell is a typical, close-minded MAGA, which means his imagination tends towards conspiracy theories. Again, what’s worse is this ignorant piece by Braswell negatively impacts voters throughout the county.
His latest insanity is considering the total elimination of property taxes from landowners. Read below.
He believes that “shifting toward a consumption-based tax system would be … more equitable…” Here he is talking about a sales tax, which no economist on the planet would call an equitable system. It is an equal system that is not equitable across the economic classes. In Braswell’s system, the rich pay less of their income than the poor to support such taxes. Sales taxes are always considered regressive taxes because of this dilemma.
He points out how the sales tax can grab those dollars away from our plentitude of tourists, which is true but the theory only applies in tourist areas, as anybody who knows Florida knows that the whole state is not a tourist destination, only parts of it are (large areas but only parts).
He refers to Florida as a “low-tax” state, which is only partially true. For wealthy dudes, like Braswell, it may be a low-tax state but for other economic classes, it is not. “The lowest-income 20 percent of Floridians contribute 12.7 percent of their income in state and local taxes — considerably more than any other income group in the state. For low-income families, Florida is far from being a low tax state; in fact, it is the ninth highest–tax state in the country for low-income families.” Increasing sales taxes would undeniably affect a tremendous number of Floridians who can barely get by with sales taxes as they are today.
One more reason not to do away with property taxes is that landowners, like homeowners and businesses, i.e., the middle class and wealthy, own property. Rarely do the poor own. Eliminating property taxes would not help all economic classes. If property taxes were replaced by sales taxes, you can be sure that poverty would increase substantially in Florida, which generally is an expense on the middle class.
Want to give him your opinion? (Don’t expect a response.) Contact Bill Braswell here at his commish site.
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