Florida House speaker Marco Rubio pushes more tax cuts

[seafan]

A reminder: Marco Rubio, a Jeb ideologue, has his sights on running for Miami-Dade Mayor this November; then it will be on to the Governorship. He demonstrated again yesterday, what kind of little Napoleon Jeb has trained him to be.



Florida House speaker pushes more tax cuts

Aaron Deslatte | Tallahassee Bureau
April 2, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - In the face of multibillion-dollar spending cuts contemplated for health care and schools, House Speaker Marco Rubio is pushing a plan that could curtail state and local government spending even more.
Rubio, R-West Miami, has assigned House staff to draft constitutional language that would cap government growth, similar to the proposal that the state's taxation reform commission will try on Friday to put on the November ballot.

.....

For weeks, the West Miami Republican has lobbied members of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission to forward the idea of a hard cap on revenue growth to voters. But the panel has been gridlocked over its potential $1.2 billion state budget impact by 2010. ..... A watered-down version of the plan is headed for a showdown between conservative tax opponents on the panel and those who fear it could cause huge problems in future years.
The measure requires 17 votes from the 25-member commission to get on the ballot.
Rubio conceded Tuesday that opponents had mounted "significant resistance." If the measure fails, he said, he wants the House to act.

.....

The reform commission has already voted to send a sweeping amendment to voters in November that would cut school property taxes by $9.6 billion, offset by a penny increase in the sales tax and perhaps the closing of sales-tax exemptions.
Rubio and others hope to pair that with tight limitations on overall government growth. That way, cities, counties and schools would be barred from making up losses in property-tax revenue with higher fees.

But the tax cap has run into a barrage of criticism.

Taxing agencies from fire departments to hospitals and water management districts have lined up against it. They argue it would be crippling following roughly $3 billion in cuts mandated by Amendment 1 and last year's Legislature.
At the same time, House and Senate budget writers are proposing to slash $3 billion from next year's budget, including roughly $2 billion just from education and health and human services spending.
Rubio on Monday conceded that the state's dire straits could require dipping into Florida's "rainy day" fund for as much as $1.7 billion later this year to balance the budget. But that hasn't affected the tax-cutting zeal in the House.

.....

This obscure Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, stacked with Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio Republican operatives, is http://journals.democraticunderground.com/seafan/2047">working overtime to skirt the petitioning process normally required to place constitutional amendments on the ballot.


What will greet the voters in November is 1, 2 and 3 below, with 4 and 5 waiting in the wings.


1. Church-State battle, set to destroy Florida's century-old constitutional protection against the merging of church and state.

2. Resurgence of Jeb's religious school voucher program (Previously ruled unconstitutional by the FL Supreme Court)

3. Anti-Gay marriage amendment

4. Required ultrasounds before ALL abortions

5. More sweeping tax cuts, with a cap on further state and local governments' attempts to make up lost revenue. (Marco *Keep 'em poor* Rubio strikes again.)



There's not much time left for Rubio to push through his vicious ideology onto the people of Florida. He's term limited out in December.




The alarm is blaring. It's time to smash and grab.

[islandmkl]

1. as a floridian, i can say with local pride...

what an ASSHAT!!

jeb,jr. with even less brains....

bad combination....expected results...

[glowing]

2. He is such a prick.. he makes me want to vomit everytime they put him

on the news. This state is already dumb enough and poor enough.. it doesn't need to cut out more funding for schools, while providing vouchers for their repug friends. AND it doesn't need to cut anymore social service programs, they're already inadequate as it is. I guess Rubio's goal is to drive everyone out of Florida.. Wonder then who's going to service his spoiled ass then?

[kevinbgoode]

3. Why doesn't he return his own paycheck?

Seems to me THAT should be the amendment on the ballot. . .