$ Penny for Pinellas $

transportation options compared

2011-03-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

Maricopa County planners improve transportation options
for Phoenix, AZ, residents

With gas prices pinching all of us, it's good to know that some communities are taking bold steps to give their residents options for getting out of their cars and into public transportation.
That's exactly what's happening in the greater Phoenix region as Valley Metro continues to extend its wildly popular light rail network and increase bus and parking access to light rail service.
Today it can cost upwards of $50 to fill up your tank, so we need more and better transit options to help us save money for life’s priorities instead of putting it into the gas tank.

FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff rides light rail with US Representative Ed Pastor of Arizona's 4th District
During his visit to Maricopa County yesterday, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff rode light rail to Tempe and Mesa with Congressman Ed Pastor and met with Mayors Phil Gordon of Phoenix, Hugh Hallman of Tempe, and Scott Smith of Mesa.
He also saw first-hand how planned transit projects throughout the Phoenix area will improve connections between the region's roadways, the Central Mesa Light Rail corridor, and the major activity centers of downtown Phoenix, downtown Tempe, Arizona State University, and Sky Harbor International Airport.
These are the places area residents, business travelers, and tourists need to go, and the region's transit planners are working hard to get them there safely. For example, during events at the US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix, event tickets also serve as transit passes--when you buy your ticket, you've already bought your ride.

The Central Mesa Light Rail Transit line is one of 10 new projects included in the 2012 budget President Obama proposed to Congress in February.

This new line is in addition to the existing Central Phoenix/East Valley Light Rail project, which opened in 2008. The FTA provided $587 million for the existing project and its extensions--including $36 million from the Recovery Act--and that investment is estimated to have spurred more than $5 billion in economic development along the corridor. Ridership continues to exceed expectations.
Continuing to invest wisely in Maricopa County transit facilities will ensure that Arizonans and their children have good transportation options for generations to come.

This is what our FTA is all about--connecting people to jobs, schools, downtown areas, and the essential services they need like medical care and groceries. And as gas prices continue to batter our wallets in these already challenging economic times, giving people car-free options to get where they need to go only becomes more important.
President Obama said that for America to compete and win in the 21st century, we have to out-innovate and out-build the rest of the world. The people of Phoenix, Maricopa County, and Arizona are doing both.
http://fastlane.dot.gov/2011/03/maricopa-county-planners-give-residents-transportation-options-today-and-into-the-future.html#more

That was a positive view of transit from President Obama's administration. Here is an opposing view from the Cato report used by Rick Scott in his decision to refuse federal funding for High Speed Rail.

Phoenix: In 1998, Valley Metro projected that it could build a 13-mile light-rail line for
$509 million (in 2009 dollars). By the time the line opened the last days of 2008, the cost
had ballooned to $1.5 billion for 20 miles— an 88 percent increase in per-mile costs.
Considering that transit carries only 0.6 percent of travel in this auto-oriented region,
this line is not likely to do much for the region’s transportation system.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11608

And here is a quote from a rebuttal of a 2007 Cato report on Portland and a summary of a newer report. Debunking Randal O'Toole's Attack on Portland: CNU Study Rebuts Anti-Rail/Anti-Planning Hokum

In their recently revved-up insurgency against public transportation, critics of light rail transit (LRT) seem to be making a particular point of selecting for attack some of the most successful LRT operations in the USA. In practice, this means attacking also the urban policies, economic performance, and other characteristics of the cities these rail systems serve.
Of these, Portland, Oregon – which serves as a national model of excellence and success in both urban planning and public transportation (see Portland Light Rail and Public Transport Developments) – has become a primary target of the ongoing jihad against Smart Growth, urban transit, and especially the "dreaded" rail transit.
The latest effort to nuke Portland's reputation as a paradigm of effective planning and superb urban transit comes from national anti-transit, anti-planning, pro-sprawl activist Randal O'Toole in a tract sponsored by the extremist rightwing Cato institute propaganda mill.
"Portland, Oregon, long touted as the paradigm of modern urban planning, is awash in corruption, government waste and public discontent" claims a Cato news release (PRNewswire-USNewswire, 9 July 2007), summarizing the central theme of O'Toole's diatribe, a 20-plus-page "policy analysis" titled "Debunking Portland: The City That Doesn't Work". "O'Toole catalogues Portland's failures in city planning and offers suggestions to other cities on how not to repeat its mistakes" continues the Cato release, which cites O'Toole – who happens to be based in Oregon – as a "Cato institute senior fellow".

Portland, Oregon: Heavy investments in rail transit and draconian land-use policies
have made Portland one of the few cities that can honestly say rail transit increased per
capita transit ridership. To promote compact development and reduce per capita driving,
most of Oregon is zoned so strictly that people are not allowed to build homes on their
own land unless they own at least 80 acres and earn at least $40,000 to $80,000 (depending on soil productivity) per year farming it.107 Inside the growth boundaries, Portland and other cities have rezoned dozens of neighborhoods for high-density development. In many cases, zoning was so strict that, if someone’s single-family home burned down, they would be required to replace it with multifamily housing.108Although this resulted in rapidly rising land prices, developers failed to build transitoriented developments along Portland’s rail lines. So Portland began offering a variety of subsidies, most of them paid for through tax increment financing. To date, Portland has spent nearly $3 billion building light-rail lines and nearly $2 billion subsidizing developments along the light rail and Portland’s streetcar. The results have been mixed. While transit ridership has increased since 1990, rail transit still carries less than 1 percent of the region’s passenger travel. Moreover, transit’s share of commuting declined between 2000 and 2007. In fact, Census Bureau data indicate that the absolute number of transit commuters shrank from about 58,000 in 2000 to 57,000 in 2007 while the number of auto commuters grew by about 66,000.109Surveys of one of the Portland area’s largest transit-oriented developments reveal that residents use transit a little more than people in other neighborhoods—but not for ommuting.110 Many transit-oriented developments have struggled, and research by the Cascade Policy Institute’s John Charles has shown that the key to success is plenty of parking; those with inadequate parking tend to have high vacancy rates.111 In a very real sense, then, successful developments are not even transit oriented.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood poses questions for Rick Scott. High-speed rail is a cheap alternative to widening interstates, if not that, then what? http://bit.ly/gheHSe

(@TomTito1) on Twitter

Please visit: http://www.bartlettpark.net/

Can we afford a new stadium?

2010-09-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

The good people of Austin saved about 75% of the cost of a new performing arts center by rebuilding their 40 year old Palmer Auditorium and recycling building materials. The new Long Center is bringing them national attention.

St. Petersburg city leaders spent a quarter of a billion dollars giving us a stadium but now tell us it's obsolete (oops!) and must be scraped down to the ground and hauled away. They say it was poorly planned from the beginning and our only option is to start over.

Ballet is not baseball but we could learn from Austin's ability to re-purpose an old structure and to do it without taxpayer money, and if we can't keep the Tampa Bay Rays perhaps we can find a new and better use for their old home.

Taxpayers were told that we need an open air stadium and that a new waterfront site a dozen blocks away was perfect. Two years later the team still wants a new stadium but now wants to leave our city. Why doesn't city council evaluate the costs and benefits of retrofitting Tropicana Field with a retractable roof?

As to a new location, we could spruce up the Martin Luther King Street Business District and turn this into a very desirable location for a fraction of the cost of moving. This entrance way to downtown suffers from decades of neglect.

The Long Center on CNN

About the Long Center

http://www.thelongcenter.org/long_center_on_cnn.aspx

Post Election Surprise: $450M taxpayer subsidized ballpark

Secret deal making behind the stadium proposal

Future restoration of Booker Creek

Booker Creek could be turned into an amenity.

Booker Creek reborn

New open space and improved drainage in the Bartlett Park neighborhood.

Let's Start Rewarding the Recyclers with PAYT, a market based, low cost approach to recycling and waste disposal

2009-12-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

Let's Start Rewarding the Recyclers with rates bases on volume of waste. You don't pay less per unit of water if you use more of it, why then should your cost per unit of trash go down if you throw out more. Saint Petersburg is the largest city in Florida that does not offer curbside recycling. Other cities charge less per month than St. Pete yet offer free curbside pickup of recyclables and additional services because they use PAYT.

So how do we start? Citizens can make this happen. The first thing we can do is to stop putting our container out twice a week. This will demonstrate public support and save the city money. Every time a truck stops we wear breaks, use fuel to accelerate and add air and noise pollution.
Saint Petersburg charges those who recycle more to subsidize those who don't. That is the effect of a flat rate for every home. There is a big discount for each extra container of waste and a only small discount for once a week service. When PAYT, or Pay as You Throw is used recycling goes up and trash volume goes down. We all save money and have a cleaner city.

We can all help the city save money by voluntary use of once a week service, and those of us who qualify can have a lower bill. (a link to the application is below)

Only a few of us qualify for the discount but if we help more people do this we then can ask city council to expand it to everyone. To qualify for a lower bill you must have a single family residence with a one-person household, a lot size of 8,500 sq. feet or less, and a water usage of 5,000 gallons or less per month. But everyone can reduce, reuse, recycle, buy less junk and start putting our can out only once a week.

The two most traditional approaches to disposing of municipal solid waste are a flat-rate system or municipal taxes. All users pay the same municipal taxes regardless of how much waste they present for pickup. Under the flat-rate system there is no link between “the actual costs for waste disposal and individual waste production,” so users do not consider the quantity of waste they produce.

PAYT is based on two guiding principles of environmental policy: the polluter pays principle (PPP) and the shared responsibility concept. The rationale for PAYT can be divided into three broad categories:
Economic

Under a PAYT scheme, some or all of the costs of waste management can be removed from property tax bills, providing more independence in the management and financial of residential waste system. Waste management services are then treated just like other utilities such as electricity or water that are charged by unit of consumption.
Environmental

PAYT programs are an effective tool in increasing waste separation and recycling, and also encourage waste minimization. The result is significant energy savings from transportation, increases in material recovery from recycling, and reduction in pollution from landfills and incinerators. PAYT programs also encourage producers to develop more efficient designs and environmentally friendly product life cycles.
Social

Waste collections costs are distributed more fairly among the population, and in proportion to the amount of waste each user generates. Free riders are no longer able to have their behavior subsidized, and PAYT is said to promote community sustainability. Household waste is “generally positively related to household income so poorer families are likely to face lower waste collection charges under PAYT systems.”
Risks

When there is a change to any established municipal service, public resistance is common. Charging for waste can also sometimes result in illegal dumping (fly-tipping) or the waste being passed to unlicensed or illegal disposal methods.
Implementation

Urban communities usually offer curbside collection while rural communities provide drop-off collection service. Both the European Union and the US Environmental Protection Agency have published handbooks for introducing PAYT.
North America

PAYT programs operated in California, Michigan, New York and Washington as early as the 1970s, although The City of San Francisco “had practiced a kind of PAYT scheme since 1932.” By 2000, 6 000 communities in the U.S. (20%) and 200 in Canada had implemented user fees for waste management. In 2002 North Americans disposed of 24 million tonnes of waste, with residential sources accounting for 9.5 million tonnes. PAYT programs resulted in residential waste declining from 9 - 38 % and increased recycling from 6 – 40%.
Europe

Austria was the first country to implement individual waste charging in 1945, but PAYT did not catch on until the 1980s when efficient and secure electronic identification systems became available. The first city in Europe to implement an electronic identification and billing system for waste charges was Dresden, Germany. Since 1991 the European Waste Policy has required that “part of the costs not covered by revenues from material reuse must be recovered on the polluter-pays principle.” Versions of PAYT are present in municipalities all over Europe.
Asia

After being introduced in the 1970s, 954 municipalities (30%) in Japan have implemented PAYT programs. The city of Taipei currently runs a scheme where households and companies purchase specially printed blue bin bags, and place waste in it. The municipal waste management department collects only rubbish placed within these special bags. Called the "Per Bag Trash Collection Fee", this scheme encourages usage of recyclable packaging, as those do not need a special bag and are disposed free of charge. As a result Taipei's waste volume is down 35.08%, and recycling has increased 2.6-fold from 1999. PAYT is also implemented in Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Taiwan.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_as_you_throw
References at bottom of page

Residential Rates in St. Petersburg

CURBSIDE/ALLEY SERVICE
Twice-a-week Service:

Single Family Residence, Business or Institution

One automated (90 gal.) automated container - $22.33
Each additional (90 gal.) automated container - $12.31*
Multiple Family Residence-per unit - $22.33
Once-a-week service:

Subject to City approval if customer meets all of the following criteria:

single family residence with a one-person household
a lot size of 8,500 sq. feet or less
a water usage of 5,000 gallons or less per month - $17.69

BACKYARD SERVICE

Single Family Residence, Business or Institution

One automated (90 gal.) container or 2 cans, manual system - $53.27
Each additional can or container - $26.10*
Multiple Family Residence - per unit - $53.27

To apply for once a week service click here

http://www.stpete.org/sanitation/residential_collection/docs/1xweek.pdf
References

1. Batllevell, Marta and Kenneth Hanf. “The fairness of PAYT systems: Some guidelines for decision-makers.” Waste Management 28 (2008): 2793-2800.
2. Kelleher, Maria, et al. “Taking out the Trash: How to Allocate the Costs Fairly.” C.D. Howe Institute Commentary 213 (2005): 1-22.
3. Bilitewski, Bernd. “Pay-as-you-throw – A tool for urban waste management.” Editorial. Waste Management 28 (2008): 2759.
4. Reichenbach, Jan. “Status and prospects of pay-as-you-throw in Europe – A review of pilot research and implementation studies.” Waste Management 28 (2008): 2809-2814.
5. Sakai, S., et al. “Unit-charging programs for municipal solid waste in Japan.” Waste Management 28 (2008): 2815-2825.
6. What I Picked Up About Trash in Taipei - washingtonpost.com
7. Hong, Seonghoon. “The Effects of unit pricing system upon household solid waste management: The Korean Experience.” The Journal of Environmental Management 57 1999): 1-10.

FREE PAYT Webinar December 9 Join the webinar, and Pass the Word!

2009-12-01T19:54:00.001-08:00

Register NOW for the webinar at www.paytnow.org.

Click image to enlarge, click Back icon to return

After registering, you will be notified about instructions for the webinar. See the flyer above for more information.

The Econservation Institute is providing FREE assistance through NATIONWIDE webinars, and through workshops and “hands-on” consulting to communities in EPA Region 9. If your community is interested in finding out about new options for recycling and diversion including PAYT and how they can help you reduce costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase jobs, and help citizens recycle then this program is for you!

The webinar is being presented by Dr. Lisa Skumatz, and guest speakers.

How can we save Baywalk from itself?

2009-08-16T16:42:00.001-07:00

First Amendment at stake

Baywalk is demanding cash and a public sidewalk from the city. Or else! They tell us they will not make the investment needed to bring new life to their retail complex, so the new owners are holding their own profits hostage until the city caves. And seven members of council are only too ready to cave, as the city had done for decades with Bay Plaza and other costly projects.

The city needs a creative approach, something beyond pouring in more taxpayer money and curtailing free speech. The recession has hit all of downtown as well as Baywalk. Could it be that there is just not enough business downtown for Baywalk, the Pier, the Rays and the many smaller attractions like Shuffleboard, art galleries and museums?

I believe that is the problem and not demonstrations on the sidewalk.

My proposal:

1 Give Baywalk the sidewalk, but only for one year. Then see if this action brings any improvement. This postpones debate over free speech until later when I hope business is much better. Using demonstrators as a scapegoat helps politicians get through this election but its not likely to turn around business. Council has the votes for a permanent giveaway so I see this compromise as the best option for advocates of maintaining the public space.
2 Close the businesses inside the Pier and use the public subsidy to help merchants move to empty space in Baywalk. This consolidates two weak destinations into one stronger one. The Pier can remain a fishing, pedestrian and biking spot at a lower cost while plans are made to demolish or rebuild. Why pour money into the Pier when the deterioration of the structure makes closing it inevitable? Then take an honest and realistic look at the Pier and the rest of downtown. Could it be better to use the budgeted $50 million to rebuild the Pier on the Trop parking lot and consolidate activity closer to the interstate and transit? The waterfront needs no subsidy to get people there, yet the city continues to pour money into unprofitable ventures. Let the market find out what people will pay for and keep free public access open for all.
3 Eliminate parking meters and expand mass transit to make downtown more inviting to visitors from the suburbs and move toward being a truly urban downtown. Our strength is being an actual downtown, not a Disney version. At some point we need to give up on the idea of having a parking spot right in front of everywhere we go and then driving a few blocks to the next stop. For now we need to cater to Pinellas residents who expect convenient parking.
4 Provide free employee parking at off site park and ride lots and subsidized car pooling and bus service. Downtown workers now consume parking needed by visitors. They want their employers to succeed so they will grudgingly go along with this.
5 Take the $700,000 subsidy for Baywalk off the table and use that money to help business on 4th and MLK Streets South. These two streets are gateways to downtown yet have languished for decades. Revitalizing those streets will help the residential neighborhoods thrive, help fill empty condos and indirectly help Baywalk and all downtown business. The area between Central and 22nd Avenue south is a wasteland with a few well kept homes and businesses surrounded by acres of parking lots, weedy lots and run down or empty buildings. This asset has not been managed well, if its been managed at all. The Bartlett Park neighborhood plan of the early 90's was designed to revitalize half of this space but needs an update.

Mark Kamleiter addresses city council on the rights of St. Petersburg residents to use their sidewalk. While focused on the sidewalk city council may not see the bigger picture.

Wasting Money on Job Bidding Wars and Corporate Subsidies

2009-07-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

Some States Wasting Money on Job Bidding Wars and Corporate Subsidies

Overall, federal recovery spending is working as intended, helping states provide needed services and avoid layoffs that would be worsening unemployment rates. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that these funds are providing states with 40 percent of what is needed to help their budgets in balance over the next few fiscal years. The recovery plan has provided states with flexibility in addressing key programs and priorities.

Unfortunately, a number of states have wasted budget funds on trying to steal jobs from one another, as highlighted by Good Jobs First. A few of the worst examples:

A multi-state bidding war for a battery production consortium ended up with Kentucky offering $200 million to subsidize a 2,000-worker facility at a cost of $100,000 per job.
Georgia paid $100 million to NCR to move its 1250-person headquarters from Dayton, Ohio - its home for 125 years - down to an Atlanta suburb.
New Jersey has approved a radical new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) law that gives developers a whole range of subsidies.

As Good Jobs First writes, this is part of a long-term trend where "footloose corporations...play states and cities like a fiddle so that small businesses and working families get stuck with higher taxes and lousier public services."

But in a time of economic crisis when state budgets are devastated, wasting money on zero-sum bidding wars is destructive to the overall economy, since it diverts money from investments in people and infrastructure that will actually build long-term economic competitiveness for our country.

More Resources

Housing Crisis Forum

2009-05-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

Event Location: Seminole Library at St. Petersburg College
Seminole, 9200-113th St. N, Room C

Event Description:
Forum on the housing crisis, offering possible solutions to those in need. Panelists include Mayor Pat Gerard of Largo, Victor Adamo of the Board of Realtors and Kip Corriveau of the Salvation Army among other experts in the field.
Co-sponsored by Organizing for America (Largo area) and the Largo/Mid-Pinellas Democratic Club.

Thomas Sowell on the housing collapse

2009-05-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

The Housing Boom and Bust

by Thomas Sowell

Publisher Comments:

This is a plain-English explanation of how we got into the current economic disaster that developed out of the economics and politics of the housing boom and bust. The creative financing of home mortgages and the even more creative marketing of financial securities based on American mortgages to countries around the world, are part of the story of how a financial house of cards was built up--and then suddenly collapsed.

The politics behind all this is another story full of strange twists. No punches are pulled when discussing politicians of either party, the financial dangers they created, or the distractions they created later to escape their own responsibility for what happened when the financial house of cards in the financial markets collapsed.

What to do, now that we are in the midst of an economic disaster, is yet another story--one whose ending we do not yet know, but one whose outlines and implications are explored to reveal some surprising and sobering lessons.

Human Events

It's a story of venal and short-sighted politicians (on both sides of the aisle), rapacious financial tycoons, and victimized American citizens. Sowell, who has taught economics at Cornell and UCLA, and whose book Basic Economics has been translated into six languages, traces a series of very questionable decisions made by many people in many places, over a period of years. Each of these decisions helped build up the pressures that finally led to a sudden collapse of the housing market -- and of financial institutions that began to fall like dominoes as a result of investing in securities based on housing prices. Sowell explains how "creative" financing of home mortgages, and the even more "creative" marketing of financial securities based on American mortgages to countries around the world, built up a financial house of cards that was inevitably destined to fall.

Sowell also deftly navigates the bewildering twists and turns of the politics behind this disaster, pulling no punches about how politicians of both parties pursued their narrow self-interests, oblivious to the financial dangers they were creating. Sowell then shines much-needed light on how these same politicians later threw up smokescreens and distractions in order to escape their own responsibility for what happened when the whole shaky financial edifice they had built finally came tumbling down.

Synopsis:

The financial tsunami has been followed by a political flood of rhetoric, accompanied by finger-pointing in all directions. Who was really responsible? What set this off?

Order a copy.

More books by Sowell.

LET VOTERS DECIDE ON PUBLIC FUNDING FOR FLORIDA MARLINS STADIUM REPRESENTATIVE STEINBERG OFFERS PLAN FOR MIAMI-DADE VOTERS

2009-03-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

TALLAHASSEE, FL --- State Representative Richard L. Steinberg (D-Miami Beach) is offering a legislative proposal to give Miami-Dade County voters the right to approve whether public funds are spent on a Florida Marlins stadium.

“The voters in Miami-Dade County should be given the right to decide whether to commit over a billion dollars of public money for a baseball stadium,” said Representative Steinberg. “If the local elected officials will not allow the people to vote, the Florida Legislature should require them to hold a referendum.”

Representative Steinberg filed an amendment to House Bill 253, a measure concerning public funding of professional sports team.

The bill, as originally filed, limits a voter referendum only to obligations “created before July 1, 2009.” The amendment offered by Representative Steinberg would give voters the right to vote on any obligation created after today, including the proposed stadium for the Florida Marlins.

Representative Steinberg serves on the House Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Committee, and three other House committees.

Can we afford not to have curbside recycling in St. Pete?

2009-02-22T11:03:00.001-08:00

2009-01-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

Evergreen Solar Finds Profit In The Sun

MARLBORO, Mass. - Four million manufacturing jobs have vanished from the American economy since 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or almost 25 percent of the entire manufacturing workforce. Layoffs at major companies are nearly daily news

But it’s important to remember that it is still too early to sound the sector’s death knell. While some industries are indeed still laying off hundreds if not thousands of workers, others are ramping up to take them in.

Read the story »

Green-Collar Job Training after Katrina

NEW ORLEANS - The shape of a national clean energy, good jobs training program for young people is gaining real definition here, where 800 young people are beginning full-time service as part of the Conservation Corps of Greater New Orleans, earning real money, educational stipends and preparing for careers in the new green economy while helping rebuild their hurricane and flood-damaged city from the ground up.
Read the story »

Stabenow Outlines Clean Energy Path to 1 Million New Jobs

WASHINGTON – As the nation’s concern over job losses and a faltering economy reached new depths this week, the Apollo Alliance and a group of prominent public interest organizations joined today in applauding Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow’s introduction of a landmark clean energy economic recovery bill to rebuild the American manufacturing sector.

Read the story »

Boston Green Justice Coalition Joins Apollo Alliance

BOSTON, Dec. 7 - The Boston Green Justice Coalition this weekend became the newest member of the Apollo Alliance, a national network of clean energy, good jobs organizations working to build a cleaner, more efficient, and more prosperous economy.
Read the story »

Data Points: Economic Outcomes of The Apollo Economic Recovery Act

The Apollo Economic Recovery Act is a comprehensive quick start economic stimulus strategy to accelerate development of wind, solar, biofuels, and other clean sources of energy, create or retain nearly 2 million new jobs, and restore America’s economic strength. Enacting this proposal would produce significant economic results for the nation.

Read the story »

Clean Energy, Green Jobs

Evergreen Solar Finds Profit In The Sun

MARLBORO, Mass. - Four million manufacturing jobs have vanished from the American economy since 2000,...

Green-Collar Job Training after Katrina

NEW ORLEANS - The shape of a national clean energy, good jobs training program for young people is gaining...

Kudos To Ohio Apollo Alliance

We received a nice gift yesterday afternoon. John Nichols of The Nation posted his list of Most Valuable...

Investment

Fast Track For National Rail Transit

MINNEAPOLIS - Technically speaking “light rail transit” encompasses an urban rail line capable...

Data Points: Investments In Clean Energy Soar

Governments, banks, and private investors around the world are furiously pumping capital into renewable...

Newark’s Green Future Summit

In the two years since Mayor Cory A. Booker took office, various measures of the city’s well-being...

Apollo Feedback

Apollo Feedback: Detroit Bailout Raises Support, Ire Last week we let you know that in partnership with our members the Apollo Alliance supported government...

John McCain running mate Sarah Palin misled Republican supporters

2008-09-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

John McCain running mate Sarah Palin misled Republican supporters

A British paper reports:

The Governor of Alaska gave a misleading version of events over a controversial bridge project in her home state when she made her maiden speech as the presumptive nominee.

Mrs Palin told a cheering audience in Ohio that she had turned down an offer from the US Congress to build the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere", which would have connected Gravina Island with Ketchikan International, an airport in Alaska's southeast serving just 200,000 passengers a year. Mr McCain routinely cites the £100 million project as a symbol of wasteful central government spending.

As she introduced herself to Republicans and the American public on Friday, the virtually unknown Mrs Palin said: "I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress ... 'thanks, but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves."

However it emerged that in a 2006 interview with the Anchorage Daily News during her gubernatorial campaign, Mrs Palin had a different view of the bridge.

Asked "would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?" she replied: "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now - while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/johnmccain/2656914/John-McCain-running-mate-Sarah-Palin-misled-Republican-supporters.html

http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1311&action=Headlines%20About%20TCS

Pay-As-You-throw (PAYT) can reduce the cost of waste collection and pay for recycling

2008-07-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, residents pay for waste collection through property taxes or a fixed fee, regardless of how much—or how little—trash they generate. Pay-As-You-throw (PAYT) breaks with tradition by treating trash services just like electricity, gas, and other utilities. Households pay a variable rate depending on the amount of service they use.

Most communities with PAYT charge residents a fee for each bag or can of waste they generate. In a small number of communities, residents are billed based on the weight of their trash. Either way, these programs are simple and fair. The less individuals throw away, the less they pay.

EPA supports this new approach to solid waste management because it encompasses three interrelated components that are key to successful community programs:

1.Environmental Sustainability - Communities with programs in place have reported significant increases in recycling and reductions in waste, due primarily to the waste reduction incentive created by PAYT. Less waste and more recycling mean that fewer natural resources need to be extracted. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions associated with the manufacture, distribution, use, and subsequent disposal of products are reduced as a result of the increased recycling and waste reduction PAYT encourages. In this way, PAYT helps slow the buildup of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere which leads to global climate change. For more information on the link between solid waste and global climate change, go to EPA's Climate Change Web site.

2.Economic Sustainability - PAYT is an effective tool for communities struggling to cope with soaring municipal solid waste management expenses. Well-designed programs generate the revenues communities need to cover their solid waste costs, including the costs of such complementary programs as recycling and composting. Residents benefit, too, because they have the opportunity to take control of their trash bills.

3.Equity - One of the most important advantages of a variable-rate program may be its inherent fairness. When the cost of managing trash is hidden in taxes or charged at a flat rate, residents who recycle and prevent waste subsidize their neighbors' wastefulness. Under PAYT, residents pay only for what they throw away.

EPA believes that the most successful programs bring these components together through a process of careful consideration and planning. This Web site was developed as part of EPA's ongoing efforts to provide information and tools to local officials, residents, and others interested in PAYT.
To find out more about how these programs work, review the following sections:

Communities - View maps showing the kinds of programs communities are using, read testimonials from local planners, or find a program near you.
Articles & Research - Read through studies from the growing body of PAYT research and browse more than 50 magazine articles on PAYT.
Resources - Explore products designed to help communities plan and implement a program.
Topics - Find detailed information on PAYT organized by topic, complete with links to case studies and related products.
Links - Connect to other Web sites containing additional ideas and material on PAYT.
Frequent Questions - Review answers to frequently asked questions about these programs.
Site Map - Scan a complete, linked list of this site's contents for the information you need.
Thousands of communities across the country are using PAYT to manage trash in a way that is fair, economically sound, and environmentally sustainable.
Pay-As-You-ThrowHighlight
SMART BET (Saving Money and Reducing Trash Benefit Evaluation Tool)
In communities with pay-as-you-throw programs (also known as unit pricing or variable-rate pricing), residents are charged for the collection of municipal solid waste—ordinary household trash—based on the amount they throw away. This creates a direct economic incentive to recycle more and to generate less waste.

Source: EPA Web site
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/tools/payt/index.htm

2008-02-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

Amendment One

2008-01-17T18:56:00.000-08:00

The proposed property tax amendment that will appear on the ballot Jan. 29 is a bad deal for Florida.
It provides minimal tax relief while putting our public schools and our public safety at risk. The average tax savings for individual home owners is relatively small, but the combined loss in revenue to local governments--and particularly to school districts--would be devastating.
Experts project that the amendment could cost public schools$204 million next year and $2.76 billion over the next five years.
Click here to let your state legislators know you will oppose the property tax amendment:http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/811owPs1IPlb/

And click here to tell others to oppose the amendment:http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/8d1owPs1IPl6/

For Florida's public schools, community colleges and state universities, these cuts could not come at a worse time. Earlier this year, the Legislature cut the state's education budget by$500 million. The most recent estimates show state revenues declining even further.
In all, public schools, community colleges and state universities are facing reductions that could exceed $1.7billion in less than 12 months--and that doesn't include the anticipated effects of the proposed tax amendment.
These combined budget cuts would have a devastating impact on school districts, classrooms and education employees--programs would be cut, school services curtailed and some layoffs would occur.
As Florida Times-Union columnist Ron Littlepage wrote about the amendment:
"If you thought the cuts in services and programs during the last budget process, brought on by previous action by the Legislature and [Gov. Charlie] Crist, were bad, it's going toget even uglier. Our parks system will stagnate. Needed infrastructure improvements won't happen. Social services will suffer. Our schools won't be adequately funded. Police and fireprotection will be reduced. Crist doesn't get that. Either that or he doesn't care."
The property tax amendment will cost too much in return for too little.
Voters should reject this proposal and insist on real tax reform that benefits all Floridians.

Click here to show your opposition to the proposed property tax amendment:http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/811owPs1IPlb/

Grassroots Coalition to Fight Property Tax Initiative

2007-12-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

"Florida Is Our Home"
Ballot Initiative Committee to Fight Property Tax Initiative

A broad coalition representing well over 1 million voters filed the paperwork today to create "Florida Is Our Home," a ballot initiative committee to coordinate a statewide grassroots effort to defeat Amendment 1 on January 29th. The coalition includes a diverse group of social service advocates, retirees, community organizations and groups representing teachers, firefighters and other workers. Some of those groups include; the Florida PTA, the Florida League of Women Voters, Florida ACORN, the Human Services Coalition and Florida Alliance of Retired Americans, as well as the Florida AFL-CIO, SEIU, Florida Education Association and the Florida Association of Professional Firefighters.

The committee will be chaired by Karen Woodall, a long-time social service advocate who is respected on all sides of the political spectrum for her tireless dedication to improving the lives and communities of all Floridians. She said, "We have created Florida Is Our Home to educate all Floridians about the negative impacts of Amendment 1 on our communities and our state. When all is said and done, the bottom line is that this is a bad deal for Florida's families." While proponents of the amendment are highlighting the fact that most homeowners may save some money, Florida Is Our Home wants the voters to know that the average $20 a month homeowners may save will cost our schools, public safety and critical programs that enhance our overall quality of life dearly. Woodall said, "This misguided amendment will hurt all aspects of life in Florida. Schools and public safety, parks and recreation programs, libraries and after school programs, even public sanitation will suffer greatly if this amendment passes." Florida Is Our Home will be a true grassroots effort and will enable the diverse groups represented to build on their own member mobilization efforts already underway to include a broader public. Woodall, continued, "This is not going to be a Donald Trump, people who winter at their mansions on the beach committee, this is going to be a true, people powered effort by Floridians who live, work, raise their families and play here year round. Supporters of Amendment 1 may have a million dollars, but we have a million voices and will use those voices to tell the people of Florida the truth about this tax scam."

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral." - Paulo Freire

Your Taxes Subsidize China

2007-12-16T19:47:00.000-08:00

You have heard about the toxic toys, pet food and toothpaste that China has been sending our way. You may have heard of the sweatshops, and inhuman working conditions including compulsory abortions for young women who toil in these places. You may have seen the TV commercials telling us that Wall-Mart is the biggest seller of Chinese goods.

But did you know that we taxpayers subsidize China with $4 billion of our taxes? This article by Dr. Ron Paul explains why he wants this to stop. Click this to see the full article: Your Taxes Subsidize China

Each year the people of the United States write a check to subsidize China, one of the most brutal, anti-American regimes in the world. Lately it has been in vogue for everyone in Washington to eagerly denounce the egregious abuses of the Chinese people at the hands of their communist dictators. Yet no one in our federal government has been willing to take China on in any meaningful way.

Message from Ron

2007-12-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Ron Paul was greeted by a wildly enthusiastic crowd of supporters here in St. Pete.
He sent us this message:

Want to know a secret? There were two moments I especially enjoyed at the CNN/YouTube debate -- despite my frustration at some of the questions, and the maldistribution of time.

First, I was pleased at John McCain's attack, which he clearly had planned. Not because that sort of stream-of-consciousness nonsense about Hitler and WWII -- when the neocons openly want what they call WW IV! Are we to forget that the first war crime charged at Nuremberg was waging aggressive war?

I mean this: mainstream politicians NEVER attack an opponent they think is far behind. The McCain campaign, we've heard, is worried sick about New Hampshire, and they thought a slam at me would help. Ha! Of course,
it only strengthened our forces.

Then, after the debate, Rudy Giuliani walked up to me and said, "Oooh, you sure have a LOT of supporters." It's only the beginning, I told him.

Indeed, he could have told that by the crowd outside after the debate. Mitt Romney had a few people, but no one else did. We, on the other hand, had about 500 enthusiastic revolutionaries, plus a boat, a trolley, and two planes towing lighted signs. As I looked out at the crowd, I thought: the establishment has no idea of what they are facing. We have an army of freedom, prosperity, and peace. As the LA Times political blog noted the other day, the
British also thought they had no problem with the Americans--until Yorktown.

But we have an astoundingly short time before the first contests. The Iowa caucuses are on January 3, the New Hampshire primary is on January 8, and Nevada and South Carolina are both on January 19. We have only
30 days to stake our claim to the nomination, and to the new America that restores the ideals of the founders, and leads the world through free enterprise, a sound dollar, the rule of law, and peaceful example. Not through
inflation and bombs.

Help me surprise the neocons and all the establishment with our success. Help me build the foundation for the America we all want. Send your most generous contribution: https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate. The military-industrial complex, the biased media, the big banks, the Fed, the waterboarders, and the IRS don't like what we're doing. But every good American is applauding us, and daring to hope for a better future.

Please, help me give it to them, to us, to all Americans to come. Keep this revolution growing and winning:
https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate.

Sincerely,

Ron

12/04/07 More news: Ron Paul Wins Republican CNN/YouTube Debate

McKay Offers Proposal to Cut Property Taxes by 45%

2007-12-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Former state senator John McKay, a member of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission (FTBRC), has filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would require the Legislature to review and repeal many of the hundreds of sales tax exemptions on non-essential goods and services. The amendment would use the resulting increase in sales tax revenue to fund schools, replacing most of the education property taxes. The current exemptions for food, prescription drugs, health services, and residential rent, electricity and heating fuel will be maintained.

McKay estimates that up to $100 billion in sales tax is uncollected every year because of the numerous exemptions that have been passed over the years, many of them the result of lobbying by special interests. In addition to mandating the repeal of all exemptions that do not serve a public purpose, the amendment would make it much more difficult for the Legislature to pass new exemptions in the future. Such exemptions would have to serve a public purpose, be in a stand-alone bill (not buried in an amendment), and pass by a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

The FTBRC is a 25-member panel appointed by the Governor, House Speaker and Senate President. The Commission can make recommendations to the legislature for statutory changes and can also place constitutional amendments on the ballot. If McKay's proposal is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Commission, it would go on the ballot next November.

For More Information visit CIVIC Concern.

From CIVIC Concern.

Post Election Surprise: $450M taxpayer subsidized ballpark

2007-11-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

I am disgusted. Over the last 6 years Mayor Rick Baker has shown ample evidence of working outside of the sunshine to further redevelopment of St Petersburg. Much of that secrecy is warranted, and fully permitted by Florida Statutes pertaining to economic development matters. I understand that.

What I don't understand and find a grave injustice to the residents, taxpayers and voters of St Petersburg, is the Mayor's decision to keep this proposal from the voters until after our recent municipal election.

Campaigns are an opportunity for candidates to explain to voters their position and decisionmaking regarding the issues of the day, and those matters which might arise in the foreseeable future.

By keeping this matter from the public until 3 days after the election, Mayor Baker has decided to forego that opportunity for public discourse regarding a $450M project. He removed from the voters the opportunity to better understand the positions of all candidates regarding the matter. - In the interest of economic development Mayor Baker has shunted aside democracy.

Who will authorize the expenditures to hire the $400,000 consultants to tell the City the project will be viable?

Who will approve the zoning and land use issues associated with a new ballpark? Who do you think will ultimately decide to approve a referendum on the issue, choose the ballot language and cause the city to incur those election expenses?

This newly chosen Council will.

The voters were deliberately stripped of the opportunity to insure that candidates on the ballot represented their intentions regarding this issue.

The above comment was sent in by a reader.

I am not criticizing the Rays for their role in this secret deal. They are playing by the rules set by City Council. This tradition of secrecy on the stadium goes back over 20 years. The public is presented with a "done deal" that is not always a good deal. Having a few insiders cook up a project of this scale deprives the community of the brainpower of thousands of fiscally conservative taxpayers who tend to reject big spending. Here are a few highlights of bad decision making:

Original historic Al Lang Field was demolished in lieu of a roof repair, just before the decision to pursue a major league team. We are now told that the new stadium is obsolete because the Rays and spring training can not play in the same city, unless we want to come up with new subsidies for spring training teams.
Hundreds of Gas Plant families sacrificed their homes for the stadium. Historic buildings were lost and a cities creditability thrown away when promises were made to build affordable housing and an industrial park on the site.
HUD funds intended to help the poor were diverted to help the wealthy; millionaire team owners and athletes. A tradition that continues with the subsidy of Sweetbay.
President Jimmy Carter required citizen participation in HUD funded projects. The Reagan administration tossed out those goals and gave the city a blank check to cut out the residents. Three churches were given new buildings despite the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion. Black united political opposition was broken and the project bulldozed its way through our neighborhood.
St. Pete hired a well connected adviser and did the exact opposite of what we were advised; we built a stadium before a team was here. This 1960's design stadium immediately became a white elephant as baseball returned to its roots with the next new stadium in Baltimore. The bargaining power of cash on hand turned into a city begging for a team on the team's terms.
Tampa taxpayers were denied an opportunity to share in this venture. We passed on the chance to find a central site where more fans would have access.
Although St. Petersburg and Pinellas paid for the dome our political leaders let the team name it for Tampa. The renamed team kept this other city in its name even thought St. Pete's Mayor was secretly encouraging them to go back to our taxpayers for more subsidies.
Voters were denied a referendum on the biggest project the city has had built. The Mayoral race became a referendum when Dr. Ed Cole was elected by angry citizens. His election should have been a wake up call to city hall.
The $8M industrial park grew into a $65M stadium. By issuing bonds to build something in advance of the need we generated business for lawyers and bond advisers.
Twenty years of paying for this has left us with a hundred million dollars more left to pay.

More information.

Happy Thanksgiving
Today's page one story says:

Voters support plans for a new Rays stadium - as long as tax dollars aren't involved.

From MLB web site

St Petersburg Citizens Against Tax Dollars For New Stadium

=================================================

A lie of omission? More like just a lie

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published November 27, 2007

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No to the city of St. Petersburg.

No to its government. No to its mayor. No to its deputy mayors and assistant pooh-bahs.

They do not get to run the government like this. They just don't.

Please read the rest of Howard Troxler's column.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/27/Columns/A_lie_of_omission_Mor.shtml

WMNF radio reports

Florida CFO Alex Sink to discuss economic trends and our local economy.

2007-11-13T17:35:00.000-08:00

Focus on 2008: A Tampa Bay Economic Forecast
Thursday, November 15, 2007

Alex Sink is a friend of Florida taxpayers and a strong advocate of honest, efficient government.

Alex Sink at Largo Library

Do you want the city council to give your tax money to the Uhuru movement?

2007-10-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

This may seem like a crazy question but strange things are happening here in St. Pete.

Read more and take our poll at New Southside.

An Increase is a Cut - Welcome to the Twilight Zone

2007-10-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of ignoring God’s call to do justice?

2007-09-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well, here’s your chance to put your faith into action. Join with members from about 30 congregations from throughout Pinellas County and learn about the biblical requirement to do justice. This workshop will happen this Saturday.

Learn about how and why it’s important for us to stand up for our communities and to bring them closer to what God designed them to be.

F.A.S.T.
Rethinking Justice Workshop
Saturday, September 8, 2007
From 8:30 A.M.-12:00 P.M.
Macedonia Free Will Baptist Church
900 16th Avenue South

For more details, please contact your Pastor, or call Tequena Hatch at (727) 823-9197 or read more at New Southside.

Cross posted in Bartlett Park.

Interview With Dr. Ron Paul

2007-09-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

Chuck Baldwin interviews Ron Paul, Republican candidate for U.S. President in the 2008 Elections, discussing his views on issues critical to the future of our country.

"Chuck Baldwin Live" aired its first program on August 1, 1994. The broadcast is currently carried by 8 different radio stations in the Florida Panhandle, Southern Alabama, and parts of Central Florida. CBL is constitutionalist,Christian, pro-life, pro-traditional family, and patriotic. He support constitutional government,the Bill of Rights, and the principles and values expressed by the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence.
Click here for interview link.

Ron Paul on taxes.

Editor's note: We are back after taking a break this summer. We will start looking at the Penny and other tax issues as they relate to local Pinellas elections this fall.

St. Pete City Hall Budget Hearing Thursday 5/24 at 6:00 pm – 175 5th Ave. N.

2007-05-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

SHOW UP, Speak up or be ignored!

Where will you be tomorrow night at 6 pm?

If you want the local politicians to cut your taxes you need to be at the budget meeting at St. Pete City Hall. The room will be crawling with people begging for more taxes and more government spending – all part of the war on tax relief waged by our politicians…the generals. If you aren’t there your taxes will stay high. Don’t stay home, come and tell them to CUT TAXES NOW!

What do they need to hear?

Don’t try to scare us with cuts to social programs and public safety.

Cut the corporate welfare to the Devil Rays, airport, seaport, pier, Mahaffey ($33.8 Million since 2001) and to Billion dollar corporations like SRI (given $30 million last year from taxpayers)!

Tonight in St. Petersburg we saw what will occur tomorrow night at city hall. Rep. Bill Heller (D), Rep. Janet Long (D), Senator Charlie Justice (D) and Senator Dennis Jones (R) gave a 20 minute talk. They told us how vital social services would suffer and implied taxes really just need to be raised on everyone with save our homes caps who have had appropriate protection. Then group after group receiving taxpayer dollars got up and told their story about how their vital arts or social program will suffer if the taxpayers don’t keep them going. (They should know that if people had more money (from lower taxes) they can afford to give money to these charity operations! Hard working people are being chased out of the state!)
It appears that the whole thing was staged to gain sympathy for big government! Fortunately many people showed up to tell them who needed relief. Examples included:
a. The African American landlord with fixed rent housing that basically has to live on less since she can’t pass the high taxes on to her tenants.
b. The retirees who had hoped to stay in Florida but are looking to leave soon.
c. The young business owners who can’t afford to operate their business
d. The long time St. Pete resident who can’t afford to move to a smaller house without high taxes.
e. The recent home buyer who is paying exorbitant taxes.

The politicians ended the meeting at 8 pm – refusing to hear the dozens of people who wanted to tell them they needed real relief…not political band aids designed to get politicians re-elected.

THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO GO TO ST. PETE CITY HALL TOMORROW – TO STAND UP AND DO YOUR PART TO DEFEAT THE POLITICIANS WHO ARE WAGING WAR ON TAX RELIEF!

St. Pete City Hall Budget Hearing 5/24 at 6:00 pm – 175 5th Ave. N.

Growth & Justice on the Tax/Revenue Project

2007-05-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

A lesson for Florida:

" Growth & Justice is starting to ask a different question: How should state and local governments raise their revenue, and why? In other words, for any given size of government, what are the principles we should use to decide how to finance it, and how well are we living up to those principles?"

Growth & Justice Tax/Revenue Project assesses how Minnesota state and
local governments finance their operations, how this compares with good
principles of taxation, and how we could change the mix of revenues to better
support both economic growth and economic justice simultaneously.

Tax policy has enormous impact on people's economic opportunities and
the well-being of families. This impact is often underestimated, because we
don't examine the whole system together, asking who pays and which behaviors are
being encouraged and discouraged. Instead, public discussion focuses on
the simpler question: Should taxes be raised or lowered? And each tax is
considered alone, instead of as part of an overall package.

There are many principles involved in a good system of taxation,
including stability, transparency, horizontal equity, and public acceptance. But
Growth & Justice believes that two principles are critical for ensuring that
Minnesota remains a leader in creating and sharing prosperity in the age of
globalization:
1. The tax system should encourage the creation and
retention in Minnesota of good jobs.
2. The tax system should ensure
that the wealthiest Minnesotans pay at least their proportional share of the
taxes, and that people who are struggling to make ends meet should not be
burdened with high taxes.
These two goals are often seen as in
conflict. The business lobby pushes the first principle, liberal tax
policy advocates argue for the second, and there is almost never a change in tax
policy that both camps like.

The Growth & Justice Tax/Revenue Project aims to develop a
plan to revamp Minnesota's state and local tax regime to make it stronger on
both these principles simultaneously. We have framed the question as revenue
neutral: To raise the same amount of money we do now, can we restructure
the mix of state and local taxes to create more good jobs and share the burden
of taxation more fairly, with less being demanded of those who don't earn enough
to support a family?
At the same time, the proposals will consider other
important tax policy questions: Can we encourage more environmentally
healthful behavior? Can we increase the share of dollars we get back from
the U.S. government through federal tax deductions?

A CALL TO ACTION FROM CUT TAXES NOW

2007-05-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

St. Pete City Council Meeting 5/24/07, 6 pm

House of Representative Town Hall Meetings, May 17, 23 and 31.

CTN Chair Dr. McKalip on ABC Action News Flashpoint, Sunday 5/13 at 11 am

St. Pete City Council
St. Petersburg Budget Meeting
Thursday 5/24 6:00 pm, St. Pete City Hall,
175 5 St. N. (Corner of 2nd Ave. N. and 5th St. plenty of street parking).

House of Representative Town Hall Meetings,
May 17, 23 and 31

In preparation for the special session on property tax reform scheduled for June 12th, The legislature has scheduled town hall meetings at the following locations this month.

May 17th in Seminole at St Petersburg College Digitorium
Thursday May 17 5-8 PM

May 23rd at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus
Wednesday May 23rd 5-8PM @ Davis Hall

May 31st at the Pinellas Realtor's Organization in Clearwater
Thursday May 31st 5-8PM @ 4590 Ulmerton Road

The outline for the discussions will be similar from before, including discussing the existing proposals from Governor Crist, The Senate and the Florida House plan. Citizens will be given time to discuss each plan or offer input of their own to our legislature. This event is open to the public and to local officials.

Pentagon Contractors Owe $7.7 Billion in Unpaid Taxes

2007-04-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

One reason taxes go up is that we need to pay our fair share and also to pay for those who don't pay their share. A report by Thomas D. Williams on the GAO found:

A federal watchdog agency insists that its investigations clearly show the US government is facing serious long-term funding shortfalls, while federal contractors, doctors and medical suppliers, regularly receiving federal Medicare money, owe billions in unpaid taxes.
Earlier this month, Comptroller General David M. Walker of the US General Accountability Office opened one of his critical summary presentations to a Defense Department acquisition conference with: "The federal government is on a 'burning platform,' and the status quo way of doing business is unacceptable...."
He cited "past fiscal trends and significant long-range challenges; selected trends ... having no boundaries;" outlandish government funding demands due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina; outdated federal policies and practices; and finally, "rising public expectations" for results.
Within the past six years, said Walker, the government's long-term financial exposures in debt, health and Social Security have jumped 147 percent to $50.5 trillion. If this trend continues, said the GAO report, federal spending will need to be cut by 60 percent and taxes will have to double to balance the budget in the year 2040. To close off this sweeping gap, the economy would demand double-digit growth for every single year for 75 years, he said.
Read more here.

Unfair Taxes Contribute to Displacement

2007-04-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

Higher property taxes in St. Pete's Southside are linked to a sharp rise in rents and fear of wholesale displacement of tenants who have lived here for generations. This area has a high rate of absentee ownership of it's mostly single family homes. These residents have paid more than their share for the dramatic increase in local government spending over the last few years.

The cover story in Creative Loafing looks at the success we are having in bringing back the Bartlett Park neighborhood, but also credits improved conditions with causing rents to rise.

Alex Pickett writes in this week's Creative Loafing; "Here Comes the Neighborhood, Things are looking up in St. Pete's Bartlett Park". He is being forced to move as his landlord is passing on his tax increase by pushing the rent up. I have personally talked to several landlords who told me their taxes have doubled in a recent year.

Prices have moderated since the bubble peaked but Jim Smith (our county tax assessor) has not reduced the high assessments. This may be one of many areas where appraisals are higher than actual sales prices. We need a closer look at this.

This area also points to the need to rethink the "highest and best use" method of appraisal. On 4th Street we have property suitable for condos with a great view of Tampa Bay. The actual use is one story small homes and cottages at low rents.

The state and county reliance on regressive sales taxes places an unfair burden on low wage workers who can least afford to pay. Many work full time at hard jobs and even work two jobs but can't make ends meet. Regressive taxes add to their burden that keeps them from saving and becoming homeowners.

The legislature looked at Broader Tax Relief but tenants have always been left out and in fact have paid for tax relief for wealthier residents.

And this higher spending takes money out of the neighborhood for the benefit of others. In many cases government funds programs that demolish low cost homes for the benefit of the affluent. Our baseball stadium forced hundreds of families to move.

Pick up a copy of Creative Loafing or go to this link.

Panic in Pinellas

2007-03-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

On the 11 PM news Tuesday night I caught a tale of impending disaster looming over Pinellas County and it’s cities. The next morning the newspaper warned of "doomsday " cuts in vital services.

Just one week after getting voter approval for close to $2 billion in new sales taxes local politicians are now pleading poverty as the state follows through on promised property tax relief. The Penny tax was sold as a way to offset property taxes and offer a grab bag of shiny new projects. That was last week. This week we can't afford to mow the grass.

You remember tax relief. The centerpiece of Governor Charlie Crist’s winning campaign was a promise to double the homestead exemption on local property taxes. He promised to raise this from the current $25,000 to $50,000. Crist had taken a popular position that seemed more progressive than the Democratic position. Jim Davis was bogged down trying to raise donations to counter Crist’s $50 million war chest. When he finally come out with a counter tax cut proposal policy analysts gave him credit for a good plan but that few voters knew about. With both parties and third party candidate Max Linn all saying taxes must be cut it’s no wonder that voters expect a tax reduction.

A funny thing happened, as Crist repeated this pledge last year no one stood up to defend local spending levels. Well, at least the media only showed one side of the issue. If local mayors and commissioners thought that this tax cut was a terrible idea, they were awfully quiet about it. They waited until after the holidays to let people forget about Crist’s talk of government waste and then started their pro sales tax propaganda.

Crist said, "government must learn to live within its means". Without opposition to his main campaign theme it’s no wonder he went on to win the election.

Now the Times has told us how drastic budget cuts will destroy life as we know it unless we give up our obsession for tax relief. Mike Donila’s article outlined possible cuts.

Some budget items are still sacred. Housing authority members can still travel to golf resorts, big new subsidies are here for sports teams and other special interests, consultants and highly paid top staff can relax. The cuts will come from eliminating a police department, libraries and other highly popular services.

This scare tactic will backfire with many voters.

Lets take a look at just two of the items presented to horrify the voters.

1) "Turning over policing to the Sheriff's Office, saving $7-million to $10-million". Many are saying, "why didn’t you do this years ago if it will save this much cash?" Clearwater has a great police force, a model in many areas. I would not be in a hurry to lose them, but why not look at every way to consolidate and increase efficiency.
2) Landscape costs of $600,000 need to be reviewed. Florida- Friendly Landscaping practices save money on labor, water, fertilizer, pesticides, solid waste disposal and pollution control. Big lawns waste money. Please don’t tell me to give up on a tax cut because we can’t afford to keep city lawns mowed.

Update: The Clearwater Gazette was against this tax because they saw the city moving beyond real needs to "wants". Although the tax vote has passed, the public can still tell their city to have a leaner budget. Capital spending can reduce maintenance cost and thus property taxes, but that is not the case with this spending plan. Here is an excerpt of their critique:

"our list of needs has shortened, and wants have crept into the proposed
Penny 3 shopping list. The City of Clearwater wants to spend $25-million on a new City
Hall, claiming that it could operate more efficiently out of a new joint
County/City facility. Now our current City Hall is no showplace, but it appears
to be meeting the needs of Clearwater's citizens, and could continue to do so
with proper maintenance. Want vs need? This is a want!
And what of the
$12.5-million proposed to be spent on expanding Clearwater's downtown streetscape project that
is already underway? Downtown is established as a Community Redevelopment Area
(CRA), and the
additional tax revenues generated by projects like Water's Edge and Station
Square can be spent only within downtown. Why not fund additional downtown
improvements from the CRA, and save our pennies for projects in
neighborhoods that don't benefit from a CRA? This is another want.
Clearwater's shopping list
is also flawed by what it does not contain, most notably funding for stormwater projects. Councilmember Bill Jonson
suggested including some stormwater funding in Clearwater's Penny 3 list,
but his City Council colleagues did not agree. Jonson wanted to reduce the Stormwater Utility tax
that's part of your monthly garbage/water/sewer bill; at $9.91 per month, it's
among the highest in the state. "

..."Penny For Pinellas Working For You - In 2002, about
$250-thousand of Penny 2 funds were used to demolish the unsafe and wasteful
fountain at the center of the Clearwater Beach Roundabout. Unfortunately, about
$1.5-million of Penny 2 funds were used to construct it three years earlier. "

What are your ideas to save tax money?

A Tale of Two Counties

2007-03-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Times reported that Governor Crist’s anti murder bill will now cost Pinellas taxpayers "as much as $32,600 a day" or over a hundred times as much as Hillsborough County will pay. This bill promises to make our communities safer by taking violent offenders off of our streets.

Without the extra 1% sales tax (Penny for Pinellas) Hillsborough has become more efficient in processing probation violators.

The Times has done some good reporting on Pinellas jail overcrowding and pointed to needed reforms in our courts as part of a solution. They even sent a reporter to spend a night in jail to document the threats of violence and of the spread of disease caused by inmates being squeezed too close together. During their campaign to pass this sales tax they seemed to forget this good reporting and told people that the only solution is more tax money.

In this article a Pinellas County administrator complained that members of the legislature say "local governments are spending money like drunken sailors", missing the irony in her statement.

I would like to include a link to this article but I didn't find one on the Times web site. It was published on Monday March 19th on page 7B by Asjylyn Loder.

During the county’s pro tax election campaign a county spokesperson said that it would be "malfeasance" to allow this jail overcrowding to continue.

The other 66 Florida counties pay for their services without a permanent extra 1% tax. Are there other efficiencies that they use that we need to know about?

3/28/07 Update

Thanks for the comment on the Arizona jail. Here is some information from their web site:

The Tents Jail was begun in 1993 when Sheriff Joe Arpaio was able to obtain some surplus military tents. These tents were set up in an area adjacent to one of the existing Maricopa County Jails in Phoenix, Arizona. Sheriff Arpaio had previously decided that he would not release any inmates due to jail overcrowding, and housing sentenced inmates in the tents seemed a good solution. Funding for the project was minimal, and included the cost for cement necessary for base pads, secure fencing, and electric costs for heating, cooling and lights.
The Tents Jail can currently hold up to 2,000 inmates.
And some more information:
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, headed by the famed Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is the most talked about and nationally recognized Sheriff's Office in the country today. Why? Because we are innovative.
No other detention facility in the country, state or county can boast of 2000 convicts in tents; no other county or state facility can boast of a gleaning program that results in costs of under 15 cents per meal per inmate; few others can say they have women in tents or on chain gangs and no other sheriff's office in the United States today has a volunteer posse of 3000 men and women, people from the community who spend their time and money to train to be volunteers helping to keep the county free from crime.
From an enforcement perspective, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office prides itself on serving and protecting the people who live in a huge county... 9200 square miles... an area larger than some states. Furthermore, Sheriff Arpaio has a philosophy of zero tolerance towards the criminal element, which has been embraced by deputies and community alike.
Because of Arpaio's immense popularity, citizens have united in a partnership with law enforcement to an unprecedented degree. This office is proud to be on the leading edge of law enforcement and incarceration.

My own opinion is that not providing inmates with job training, education, drug treatment and counselling and not carefully watching them when the get out on parole all contribute to a revolving door where they end up back in jail. This costs lot to taxpayers but costs much more to crime victims.

2007-03-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

Taxing Big Oil's Windfall Profits

Stop the presses. Instead of receiving ridiculous tax breaks and taking home obscene amounts of money tax-free, big oil may actually be asked to pay its fair share of taxes for once.
Last month, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle proposed taxing big oil companies to help pay for the state's transportation needs.
The assessment would equal $1.50 per barrel of oil sold in the state, and more importantly, the companies would be prohibited from passing the tax onto customers by raising the price of gas at the pump.
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue would have the authority to audit the earnings of oil companies.
If the department finds that the tax is resulting in higher fuel prices, the offending company would be subject to fines in the amount of the gains resulting from the price increase, or up to six months in jail.
Governor Doyle is not alone in his idea:
The idea got traction last year when legislators in Washington State, supported by the advocacy of the Economic Opportunity Institute, proposed legislation to tax the oil company's windfall profits. This session, Rep. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, Steve Conway, D-Tacoma and Mary Helen Roberts, D-Edmonds, have sponsored HB 1510 calling for using oil profits to help mitigate energy costs for state residents and help fund state investments in renewable energy.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is also proposing taxing oil company profits to help fill the state's transportation gap. His proposal would tax oil company businesses operating in the state at a rate of 6.17 percent on gross profits, providing $760 million a year for public transit systems. Governor Rendell pointed out that Exxon Mobil's 2006 profit of $39.5 billion was almost 50 percent greater than the entire Pennsylvania state budget.
Similar proposals are also being debated in New York and New Jersey.
Our January dispatch highlighted the use of taxing windfall oil profits as a fair means of offsetting the many environmental costs of fossil fuel use. With these windfall profit tax proposals, big oil profits could help pay for public transportation, which would help mitigate some of the damage that is caused by fossil fuels.
With President Bush last year rejecting taxing oil profits and a federal bill not likely to get anywhere with a veto threat, it's left to the states to lead the way and help their citizens, rather than letting big oil take us all for a ride.

This article was by J. Mijin Cha of Stateside Dispatch.
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2007-03-13T04:11:00.000-07:00

Tax Advocates Get Ugly- Two Billion Dollar Tax-part 3

Bishop Robert N. Lynch and Florida Governor Charlie Crist came out against the Penny for Pinellas and became victims of mudslinging from desperate "tax addicts". Crist had been sitting on the fence so his conversion looks like a sign that polls have shifted against this tax.
This past week Catholics received a message from our Bishop. While not telling us how to vote he outlined solid reasons for not supporting this tax at this time.
You may not know this from news reports but his position pointed to a very reasonable compromise where a more modest capital budget could allow more resources to help needy residents. He should be thanked for his leadership.
It will be a long time before the current tax expires in 2010. We taxpayers could be engaged to support the most critical projects and come up with a new tax plan. The state legislature could be asked to restructure the tax. We have a year and a half to prepare for the 2008 ballot. If that fails we could start again but the current tax may lapse while a new tax is developed. Under no circumstances do county commissioners want to see taxes go back to 6%, even for one day. Once people realize that they don’t need to pay that extra 1% the burden of selling this tax will be hard to surmount.
Local government is trying to push their flawed tax plan through before more people question the pork barrel spending.
The Bishop's position has been distorted to imply that he is either lying to the voters or that he is misinformed. At St. Petersburg city council last week tax opponents were accused of spreading "disinformation". City attorney Wolfe threatened voters, saying " you can forget about social services" if this tax does not pass.Politicians have ignored the Bishop's statement and reverted to the claim that the enabling legislation for this tax only allows for capital projects. But this legislation was written to the specifications of local government so local officials can ask the state to modify it. Don't blame the legislature for this mess, although they definitely could step in at this point with real leadership.
It is true that the current tax can not be spent for services; it's just plain dishonest to tell citizens that we can't rewrite the new tax (which would not start until 2010) to meet our needs.
We don't have to be bound by a pork barrel bonanza for politically connected building contractors. Learn more about trimming wasteful spending on the Cut Taxes Now web site.
The Sunday Times editorial was also misleading. Local elected officials and media don't want voters to consider the Hillsborough model where half of the penny goes to indigent health care.The Times writes "The Penny for Pinellas is an infrastructure tax that by law provides funding only for capital projects such as roads, bridges, libraries, drainage, land purchases and parks. It can't be used to feed the hungry or clothe the poor." True enough but completely irrelevant to Bishop Lynch's proposal. When tax advocates rush to change the subject they pay tribute to the strength of the Bishop's argument.
This dishonest and sometimes vicious response to Bishop Lynch resembles the acts of desperation committed by a drug addict willing to throw it all away for one more fix. When a politician is willing to toss aside their credibility we have to ask why. Why is it so critical to push this past the voters without scrutiny and at an election when most will not participate?
The Times gave a more balanced view of this tax in a column by USF St. Petersburg professor Dr. Darryl Paulson, who asks "Why encourage more spending?"
Local Republican bloggers are not happy with Crist. They all talk about tax cuts but when it comes to ending this "temporary" tax they make all sorts of excuses for not supporting a cut. One even accused Crist of pandering to Democrats. It's refreshing to see Crist try to keep the promises he made to voters.We seem to have completed a role reversal since the Clinton era. After Bill Clinton left us with a surplus Republicans abandoned balanced budgets and low taxes in favor of tax cuts targeted to special interests and higher taxes for the rest of us. Democrats have become the party of fiscal conservatives.
Republican Party activists are furious with Crist but he remains popular with the voters. His coattails will bring "No" votes to the polls.
Voters can give themselves a tax cut on Tuesday by voting no on this sales tax. This also will send a message to the state legislature, encouraging them to slow the rise in spending and to back off their plan to raise the state sales tax another 2 ½ %.

This article was first published in Bartlett Park.

2007-03-13T03:56:00.000-07:00

Two Billion Dollars in New Taxes part 2

Educate yourself and vote.
Please visit the It's Your Times web site.
This county web page talks about the popular projects funded in past years.

Please listen to both sides and make an informed choice.

Cut Taxes Now believes that the Penny tax should be voted down for several reasons. They have made a contribution to an informed electorate at a time when the media had been cheer leading for new taxes. I don't agree with all of their criticism, a few of the projects they identify as wasteful seem valuable to me. Yet I can't vote for $2 Billion in new taxes when so many priorities from public safety to health care go unmet, and the tax burden is hitting citizens already struggling to cope with rising prices for insurance, gasoline, and food.

Here is a long list of reasons to oppose this tax, as identified by CTN:

¨ The State Legislature may be replacing property taxes with a sales tax of 2.5cents or greater. Passing the Penny for Pinellas would create an even higher sales tax in our county.¨ Much of the essential spending in the Penny proposals can be done by local governments within their current budgets.¨
There has been no attempt at meaningful tax reform by the local governments. Governments should be committing now to limiting tax and spending growth to no greater than 3% this year and to roll back their budgets to year 2001 levels over the next two to three years.¨
Local governments are wasting taxpayer dollars on a political campaign to raise taxes.

Wasteful Spending Proposed by Penny for Pinellas Tax Dollars¨ The state may soon impose a 2.5 cent sales tax on us all as part of property tax reform. We don’t need to add a penny here in Pinellas.¨ Cut Taxes Now believes only about 50% of the spending may be justified. Much of it could be done from local budgets already funded by property taxes – while still cutting taxes! Killing the penny now would allow the county to offer a more responsible budget, perhaps with a ½ penny tax to be voted on later.¨ 2/3 of the tax is borne by local citizens, not tourists.¨ Locally, governments have twice as much money as they did six years ago. Why do they need more?¨ Local governments have forgotten their core missions: public safety, basic transportation needs and utilities (which pay for themselves).¨ Local governments have refused to restrain their spending and will never do so until the citizens impose some control on them.¨ Local governments have not demonstrated responsible spending of our money. They give millions of taxpayer dollars to billion dollar corporations for “economic development”, millions to the homeless who refuse to pay their own way, and still refuse to reveal how they will use the environmentally sensitive lands of Booker Creek.Pinellas County¨ County Wide Park Infrastructure Improvements - $29 Million – Again, we need to prioritize how we spend money. When a family has a tight budget, they don’t buy a shiny new swing set for their backyard!¨ Community Parks Land Acquisition - $10 Million. With usage of the Booker Creek park in question, can we trust our local governments to take control of more land?¨ Environmentally Sensitive Land Acquisition. $18 Million – Again, with the way the county has kept their plans for Booker Creek secret, can we trust them to own more land?¨ Heritage Village Master Plan - $10 Million – A beautiful place, but we need to prioritize our spending when citizens are tightening their belts due to high taxes.¨ Community Recreation &Centers Development - $16 Million – Claims to “maintain” facilities that have been overbuilt in past. This demonstrates that excess spending requires more future spending.¨ Eagle Lake Park - $3 Million – Another dog park, boardwalks and overlooks. Can we afford it?¨ County Extension Building Replacement - $7.5 Million. It is unclear that having more government buildings help anyone. Further, why can’t they stay in the same buildings? Plus they are looking to showcase “Green Building Design” to educate the community and builders on “sustainable building practices”. Looks like they forgot the core functions of public safety, transportation and Utilities.¨ Government Facilities $40 Million – They want to “remodel and renovate” government buildings. Again, where are the priorities? Homeowners and business owners have to work harder to make renovations…they can’t just collect taxes to do it. Further, if governments shrink to the size they should be, there would be less need for more space.¨

St. Petersburg has been notorious for wasting money. It’s tax collections have doubled since 2000 and it gives away money to large corporations, the homeless, and for special projects such as rotating colored lights on the pier and Segways for police officers that are of questionable need when the taxpayers are hurting. They seem to repave over perfectly good streets on a regular basis. They are renting - at no cost - a $5 Million dollar piece of waterfront property to a company that made $390 Million in 2005 (SRI). Here is a list of their proposed projects for St. Petersburg “Penny” money.Recreation Center Additions/Improvements - $13.6 MillionNew Recreation centers - $10 Million.Athletic Facilities Addition/Improvements - $11.15 MillionNew Athletic Facilities - $5.5 MillionThe City has torn down and replaced perfectly good buildings as the taxpayers are finding it harder to afford to live in St. Pete. We all would like a brand new house, but unlike the local governments we can’t always have what we want. While we can’t simply collect more revenue by voting for it, the local governments want Pinellas Taxpayers to vote them more money.Other wasteful spending in St. PetersburgInfrastructure “To Be decided” - $5 million. To be decided could just as easily read “slush fund”.Pier Improvements - $2.1 Million - Will the pier EVER pay its own way?Mahaffey Improvements - $4.5 Million (City just built a brand new facility with a $95 Million taxpayer financed loan!)Park Facility Improvements $2.5 MillionPark Improvements - $13.6 MillionParkland Acquisition and development - $4 millionColiseum - $2.62 millionSunken Gardens – 3.6 millionClearwaterClearwater also has numerous park and facility upgrades. They propose to demolish two libraries and replace them, expand park space and “streetscape” the downtown . They want a brand new city hall when average homeowners can’t afford to remodel or move to a newer house due to high taxes. They propose a city wide computer network when most people pay for their own computer networking anyway. There are good arguments for these but the biggest against them is: the taxpayers can’t afford these projects any more. The City will have to prioritize how it spends the taxpayer’s money.New City Hall - $25 MillionCitywide Wireless Computer Network - $3.125 MillionDowntown Streetscaping - $12.5 MillionDowntown Parking Garage - $6.25MillionCoachman Park redevelopment - $5 MillionYouth Sports field renovation/improvements - $7 million.Neighborhood park renovation/improvements - $5 millionRecreation Trails - $3 MillionCountryside Aquatic family Center - $2.5 MillionDemolish/rebuild Countryside library - $6.25 millionDemolish/rebuild East Branch library - $6.25 MillionRuth Eckerd - $4 MillionSenior Facility - $3 Million

This article was first published in Bartlett Park.

2007-03-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

Are You Ready for Two Billion Dollars in New Taxes?

"I urge ALL voters in Pinellas County to go the poles on March 13 and vote NO to the Penny for Pinellas. We, the taxpayers in this county, need to draw a line in the sand and this is a good place to start."
This is from a statement by Jim Overby, Communications Co-Chair of the citizen’s group Cut Taxes Now .
If you live in Pinellas you have seen the county's several hundred thousand dollar advertising campaign, but little has been said in the media on the other side.It's amazing to see the public about to spend $2 billion with so little debate and virtually no information on where the money will go. The publicly funded ad campaign tells where money was spent in the past. Not much is spelled out on future projects and the actual needs of residents.
CTN has done extensive research. Their web site has graphs that chart the explosion of local spending since the real estate boom has pushed up tax assessments. They focus on the inherent waste that comes when government has a fixed pool of money that must be spent. An example of this waste might be the recent decision of Clearwater to cut a $2 million pedestrian overpass from their budget. Coming from city taxes, the city decided that this money did not need to be spent. People could just wait for the light to cross the street. If this had been "Penny" funds would anyone have considered this waste?
CTN also reminds us that a comprehensive statewide solution is underway. Of course that solution will come sooner if we are all working together. By shifting taxes from big property owners to the middle class and the poor the county is undermining the push for tax reform. Those with political clout always seem happy with our tax structure and wasteful spending.
The CTN critique only scratches the surface. But we will have time to hold another election if this tax vote fails next week. Perhaps the voters will become engaged and help our elected officials set priorities. Other options may be a half % sales tax to fund only the priorities. Hillsborough uses this tax to fund health care. In St. Petersburg we have funds for new fire stations and a $50 million police station but no "Penny" funds can go for pay increases or to hire more officers despite the pressing need. Maybe the voters would look at public safety as a greater priority.
CTN has not talked about the unfairness of regressive sales taxes. St. Petersburg residents seem to be the losers in this income transfer. That may be why the county has scheduled the election to coincide with smaller city elections. Turnout could be low in St. Pete because of this bad timing.
You owe it to yourself to hear both sides before you vote. Learn more on the Cut Taxes Now web site.

Photos: protax road sign and anti tax bumper sticker

This article was first published in Bartlett Park.

2007-01-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

Raising Revenue Through Fair Tax Systems
From: the stateside dispatch

As states look to expand education funding and provide health care for their citizens-- along with paying for other social needs-- the hardest challenge is figuring out what taxes need to be raised to accomplish this.

Here's the first step. Almost every state tax system requires working families to pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than their wealthier citizens. In fact, as the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy detailed in their 2003 study, Who Pays?:

[O]nly four states require their best-off citizens to pay as much of their incomes in taxes as middle-income families have to pay. Only eight states tax their wealthiest residents at effective tax rates as high as the poorest taxpayers are required to pay...Most states tax the wealthy at rates that are much lower than the rates on middle- and low-income families.

If wealthier citizens and corporate shareholders are just asked to pay their fair share, states can raise much of the revenue they need for social needs and even to give tax relief to working families.

Fair Income and Estate Taxes

Since most sales taxes and property taxes are regressive and burden working families more than the wealthy, the states that create a fair tax system balance those regressive taxes with an income tax with higher tax brackets for the very wealthy. As this Tax Policy Center table highlights, there is a wide disparity in state income tax systems, but a number of states in recent years have been seeking ways to make their tax systems more progressive.
Creating High-Income Tax Brackets: As one example, in 2004, as New Jersey struggled with both a budget deficit and calls to lower the property tax burden, the state created a new 8.97% tax bracket for those making $500,000 per year or more. This plan raised taxes on just 30,000 households, while providing tax relief for 1.8 million households-- a sign that in an economy where income is skewed increasingly to the top, a fairer tax system can raise a lot of revenue even while giving tax relief. Along with property tax relief, a rising number of states are using State Earned Income Tax Credits to ease the tax burden on lower-income working families as well.

Estate Taxes: Another area where states are working to maintain tax fairness (and raise some needed revenue) is by preserving taxes on wealthy estates. While some states have followed federal law as the estate tax has been rolled back, many others are "decoupling" their estate tax from federal law changes. And while a few high-income folks duck out of state to avoid state estate taxes, "the number is modest and not nearly enough to offset the revenue gained by keeping an estate tax" as one research report detailed.

Reforming the Corporate Income Tax

An effective corporate income tax has two large advantages for states: it taxes corporate owners, the majority of whom are in the richest 1% of the population, and many of those owners are not state voters. Corporate income taxes are often the main tax where those out-of-state owners pay for the public benefits enjoyed by those companies.
Unfortunately, since 1980 state corporate income tax revenues have dropped from 9.7% or all state taxes down to just 5.7% by 2000. A 2005 study by Citizens for Tax Justice found that 252 of America's largest corporations failed to include two-thirds of their U.S. profits on state tax returns, avoiding an estimated $41.7 billion in state corporate income taxes over three years.

Combined Reporting: Part of the problem is that in the age of Enron, business enterprises use a complex combination of subsidiaries to manipulate where they have to report profits. Traditionally, states allowed each separate subsidiary to file separate tax returns, which encourages all sorts of tax manipulations. At least eighteen states now have enacted "combined reporting" rules that require corporations to aggregate all profits from those separate subsidiaries and then pay a specific portion of those profits to a state -- an approach the Supreme Court affirmed as a legal approach in Barclay's Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Bd.
Decoupling from Federal Corporate Loopholes: Another problem in recent years has been the proliferation of federal corporate loopholes passed as part of President Bush's big corporate tax cuts. In response, many states have "decoupled" their tax codes from federal definitions of corporate income: less than a week after Congress passed one corporate giveaway in 2002, the Virginia legislature passed a measure that rejected the new federal depreciation rules, a move followed quickly by six other states. A number of states have acted to reject one particular federal loophole, the "Qualified Production Activities Income" (QPAI) deduction, because it threatens to cost states over $1 billion per year as it is phased in.

Taxing Windfall Oil Profits: With massive profits for large oil companies in recent years as they have benefitted from MidEast troubles and the runup in oil prices, a number of groups have advocated state Windfall Profits Taxes. Even if states capture just a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars in windfall profits, this would create a large source of new revenues of the states, $600 million per year for the State of Washington alone according to the Equal Opportunity Institute, revenues which could be used to offset many of the environmental costs of fossil fuel use.

For other reforms of corporate tax subsidies, see our June 2006 Reforming Failed Tax Subsidies.

Better Enforcement of Tax Law

If some lost tax revenue is due to loopholes, manipulation and untaxed windfall profits, a lot of it is also due to straight-up tax cheating by both corporations and rich individuals. States are responding with a variety of strategies for catching these tax cheats-- and recovering this revenue:
Cracking Down on Abusive Tax Shelters: A 2001 Multistate Tax Commission report estimated that tax shelters designed to illegally evade taxes cost states as much as $12 billion per year. Facing the largest losses in the nation, California pioneered legislation requiring new reporting on the details of suspicious shelters, enacting heavy fines for using illegal shelters, and creating an amnesty program to promote voluntary compliance. The amnesty program brought in a cascade of revenue: over $1.4 billion from 1,202 taxpayers, or an average payment of over $1 million per taxpayer reflecting the widespread tax cheating among this wealthy population. Other states are following suit.
Multi-State Collaboration: Going beyond the occasional cooperation between state auditors, eight states led by Massachusetts created a new multi-state agreement to share data in a project called the Clearinghouse, which will compare information on people who work in one state and earn income in another in order to reveal tax cheating.
Shaming Tax Cheats: To encourage payment by taxpayers caught violating the law or delinquent in their taxes, more than a dozen states have begun publishing lists of businesses and individuals owing taxes on the Internet. Connecticut pioneered this high-tech shaming strategy in its Top 100 list, which collected more than $161 million in overdue tax debts over its first seven years and other states have been collecting similar amounts with their own programs.

Taxes and Economic Growth

The usual objection to raising taxes on the wealthy or corporations is that such taxes undermine economic growth, yet there is remarkably little evidence to back up those claims. Studies instead have emphasized that neither business tax cuts nor estate tax cuts play any significant role in local economic growth.
In Rethinking Growth Strategies, author Robert Lynch highlights the fact that state and local taxes are too small a part of a typical company's costs to determine plant location, so cuts in public services are likely to cost more jobs than any jobs potentially attracted by low taxes. Worse, by failing to invest in education, university research and infrastructure, low tax states can undermine the worker training and infrastructure factors that DO determine where companies want to do business.
Similarly, CFED's A Progressive Economic Development Agenda for Shared Prosperity: Taking the High Road and Closing the Low, describes low-tax strategies as a "get poor" strategy where the better approach to "local competitiveness needs to focus on meeting the workforce and infrastructure requirements of the New Economy..."
All of which emphasizes that states can best pay for those investments in public services by creating effective state tax systems where the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.

More Resources

Raising Revenue Through Fair Tax Systems
Fair Income and Estate Taxes
ITEP, Guide to Fair State and Local Taxes
ITEP, Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States
Tax Policy Center, Individual State Income Tax Rates 2000-2006
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, A Rising Number of State Earned Income Tax Credits Are Helping Working Families Escape Poverty
Reforming Corporate Income Tax
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Guide to Fair State and Local Taxes: Corporate Income Taxes
Citizens for Tax Justice, Corporate Tax Avoidance In the States Even Worse Than Federal
American Tax Policy Institute, The State Corporate Income Tax: Recent Trends for a Troubled Tax
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Combined Reporting of State Corporate Income Taxes: A Primer
Multistate Tax Commission, Model Statute for Combined Reporting
Equal Opportunity Institute, Energy, the Environment and Windfall Revenues
Better Enforcement of Tax Law
California Legislative Analyst's Office, Abusive Tax Shelters: Impact of Recent California Legislation
Multistate Tax Commission, Model Statute on Disclosure of Reportable Transactions: requires disclosure of transactions with potential for tax avoidance or evasion
Multistate Tax Commission, Model Statute for Tax Avoidance Transaction Voluntary Compliance Program: creates a voluntary compliance program (amnesty) program
Multistate Tax Commission, Model Statute on Compilation of State Tax Return Data: requires taxpayers to report certain data as filed on the tax returns in the other states
Taxes and Economic Growth
Economic Policy Institute, Rethinking Growth Strategies
Iowa Policy Project, Taxes and State Economic Growth: The Myths and the Reality
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Research Findings Cast Doubt on Argument That Estate Taxes Harm State Economies
CFED, A Progressive Economic Development Agenda for Shared Prosperity: Taking the High Road and Closing the Low

Masthead: The Stateside Dispatch is written and edited by:

Nathan Newman, Policy Director

Mijin Cha, Policy Specialist

Adam Thompson, Policy Specialist

Matt Singer, Communications Director

2006-11-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

Iraq War Will Cost More Than $2 Trillion

Linda Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz, two scholars, one a Nobel Prize winner, revisit their estimate of the true cost of the Iraq war.
They consider the current and future budgetary costs, the economic impact of lives lost, jobs interrupted and oil prices driven higher by political uncertainty in the Middle East.

For their article, click here : http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110506A.shtml

2006-10-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

Why are local taxes rising so fast?

As George Bush cut federal taxes and Jeb Bush cut state taxes grants to local government have dwindled. At the same time "unfunded mandates" require local government to spend more money. A major loss of tax revenue is from cutbacks in enforcement. In "Bridging the Tax Gap" The Economic Policy Institute offers an explanation:

The Internal Revenue Service estimates that as much as $350
billion in taxes are not paid voluntarily and on time. Much of this enormous gap
can be attributed to offshore financial manipulations, abusive tax shelters,
complexity of the tax code, and failure to implement basic financial reporting
and withholding procedures. Compounding the compliance problem is the
enforcement burden on an inadequately funded IRS. In a new book, Bridging the Tax Gap:
Addressing the Crisis in Federal Tax Administration, EPI economist Max
B. Sawicky brings together eminent theorists and practitioners in the field of
tax enforcement. Collectively, these experts provide an accessible overview of
the crisis facing federal tax administration and discuss a wide range of
practical solutions. See also Sawicky's April 5th testimony before the U.S.
House of Representatives, Committee on Small Business, entitled The
Bulls-Eye Is On Efficient Government: The IRS, Small Business, and Tax
Administration. (News release [PDF])

2006-10-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

Home prices drop, will taxes follow?

The Commerce Department reported two days ago that the median price of a new home plunged 9.7 percent last month, compared with September 2005, the biggest such drop in 36 years. Southside properties have been rising in value much faster than other neighborhoods. This week the St. Petersburg Times reported increases of up to 800% over the past decade.
These higher assessments are squeezing landlords who try to pass them on to tennants by raising rents.
Will the softening of home prices bring tax relief?
The New York Times reports:

Statistics from the National Association of Home Builders showed a similar
slide. Builders reported cutting prices in September by 5 percent, according
to the association's most recent data...
While new-home prices across the country may not be falling quite as sharply as the reported numbers suggest, builders are also offering a variety of hidden price cuts in response to the much harsher housing climate that they now face.
"We're going to run our business as if it's going to stay tough for a while," said Richard J. Dugas Jr., chief executive of Pulte Homes, one of the nation's largest residential builders. On Wednesday, Pulte said its profit in the third quarter fell by
more than half, compared with the same period a year earlier.
Indeed, profits are falling fast in many parts of the country for builders, who are
rapidly scaling back on their future construction plans. The home builders' association reported that 45 percent of builders and developers said they cut prices in September to maintain sales volume. That was up from only 19 percent a year
earlier. Similarly, the association reported that 55 percent offered amenities
like granite counters or upgraded kitchen cabinets for no additional cost. Only
19 percent did so a year earlier. The cost of those incentives was not
reflected in the new-home price data, which suggested that builders were making
even less money from each sale than the shrinking official prices would indicate.

$ Penny for Pinellas $

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Amendment One

Grassroots Coalition to Fight Property Tax Initiative

Your Taxes Subsidize China

Message from Ron

McKay Offers Proposal to Cut Property Taxes by 45%

Post Election Surprise: $450M taxpayer subsidized ballpark

Florida CFO Alex Sink to discuss economic trends and our local economy.

Do you want the city council to give your tax money to the Uhuru movement?

An Increase is a Cut - Welcome to the Twilight Zone

Are you sick of ignoring God’s call to do justice?

Interview With Dr. Ron Paul

St. Pete City Hall Budget Hearing Thursday 5/24 at 6:00 pm – 175 5th Ave. N.

Growth & Justice on the Tax/Revenue Project

A CALL TO ACTION FROM CUT TAXES NOW

Pentagon Contractors Owe $7.7 Billion in Unpaid Taxes

Unfair Taxes Contribute to Displacement

Panic in Pinellas

A Tale of Two Counties

Maricopa County planners improve transportation options
for Phoenix, AZ, residents