Reaction from local Tea Party to sales tax study

Lance Thate, Chairman
ST AUGUSTINE TEA PARTY
Special to HISTORIC CITY NEWS

The drama for the evening at the St. Augustine Tea Party meeting on April 14, 2015, was Commissioner Jeb Smith’s defense of his vote to study a sales tax increase in St. Johns County, Florida.

Mr. Smith’s reason for continuing the “study” was to bring to light the fact that farmers and businesses in his rural district are getting hammered with absurd ad valorem tax increases, yearly. He claimed that his farmer father’s tax increase was 21% this year. (A maximum increase for home owners is 3%). Commissioner Smith’s support for the “study” was to find a way to equalize the tax burden.

Mr. Smith revealed that he got lots of angry phone calls from constituents who were not pleased with his voting for a sales-tax “study”. Had Commissioner Smith voted “No” on February 17th, on the second vote, it would have killed the sales tax effort.

Mr. Smith championed the idea of imposing a sales tax increase in St. Johns County if the revenue was used for rollback ad valorem taxes. That way, more people would be carrying the tax burden.

This concept is not entirely rejected by fiscal conservatives. Many conservatives support the idea of consumption taxes, sales taxes and user fees. It is a better way to raise revenue as it involves more individuals. They also believe that such taxes would have an ability to improve the economy only if they replaced the existing taxes such as property and income taxes.

Sales taxes are usually promoted on the basis of promising that the funds will be used for a popular purpose. In neighboring Putnam County, for example, when the sales tax was voted in the politicians promised that the money would be used to improve roads. Few roads were improved and now the revenue is being used to pay interest.

When asked by a Tea Party member if the rollback feature could be changed after the sales tax was in place, Mr. Smith indicated that it could. Commissioner Smith, a very gifted speaker, made a great presentation. However, the distrust of the current Board of Commissioners and future boards failed to convince many at the Tea Party meeting.

It is a Spending issue, not a Revenue issue

Of course, the Tea Party position is that they are “Taxed Enough Already”. Frank Bailey, a new Tea Party member, recently said after listening to a long, complicated presentation by Denver Cook about the County’s budget, “Sounds to me like you can solve the problem, just by cutting every department 10%. Any business knows how to do this without disrupting activities and the County can learn how to do this as well.” The County has a spending problem and all the talk about a sales tax, being pushed by the County Administrator, is a diversion from recognizing the real situation.