Problems:
- Property Taxes are astronomically out of control and are destroying the real estate market and local economy. This extraordinary burden is being shifted to renters, business owners, consumers, people who own second homes and out of state property owners.
- From 1996 to 2006, Florida property taxes increased 108% while inflation was less than 3% a year and population growth was only 2% a year. In 2006-2007, property taxes increased on average of 22%.
Effects:
- Property taxes have become a burden for all and unaffordable for many.
- The current downturn in the real estate markets is forcing all levels of government to find new sources of revenue to support their budgetary spending. The unintended consequence is that the added taxation, regulation and fees are strangling the local economy, property owners and business investment opportunities.
- Fire marshals and building inspectors have been more proactive in targeting commercial buildings, rental properties and associations for fire safety and code compliance issues.
- Expensive impact fees are frightening business investors from committing to an area.
- Out of state property owners (snow birds) are no longer coming to Florida to buy property. Instead, they are selling property due to lack of shelter from property tax increases. Out of state residents provide additional sales revenue and if they are reluctant to come to Florida, it hurts the state’s economy that much more.
- Business entrepreneurs are reluctant to start up a new venture when property taxes are out of control. Given the cost of construction (which has increased 50% in 5 yrs), real estate taxes (which has doubled in 7 yrs), insurance (which has doubled in the past 5 yrs), and impact fees (which has increased 200-400% in the past five years) the rent for new commercial space will far exceed a small business’ financial capabilities.
- Land developers do not have any business opportunities to construct new building outlays which will have a harmful effect on the job market.
Solutions:
- Amend Save our Homes so that every property owner has varying levels of Homestead exemption.
- Create incentives for people purchasing vacation property or second homes.
- Prevent Local and State Governments from spending more than 10% above inflation. Government spending should be tied to GDP, population growth, plus inflation. There must be a level of fiscal responsibility and conservation during a boom cycle of the economy. Once there is a bust, government finds itself in a precarious situation to maintain the current budget for new projects, maintenance of buildings and new levels of employment. A recession forces government to make necessary cuts.
- Fundamentally, property taxes are archaic, don’t distribute the tax burden equally and make everyone a perpetual “renter” to the state even if the property is paid off. I would pursue what former State Representative Marco Rubio suggest, which is to abolish property tax and replace it with a sales tax or a consumption based tax structure.
Problem:
- Florida continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in education
Effects:
- Students are not graduating
- Quality of education is poor yet expensive
- Teachers are underpaid
Solutions:
- Propose a Florida Constitutional amendment to charter all education thereby giving all schools more autonomy over the state, school boards, and unions.
- Do a performance and monetary audit of the entire school system to find out where the money and resources are being misallocated.
- Increase and encourage a full scale voucher system that will create competition and improve the quality of education. Secondary education is better than primary education because in colleges, you have competition and choice. In elementary through high school, there is no choice and therefore limited competition to improve the system. If there is a doubt about the validity of a school voucher system working, I can attest to the fact that it works because I am a product of such a system. Being a military veteran, I received my master’s degree under the GI Bill.
- Complement the FCAT by identifying students who are deficient and require extra help through periodic quizzes. The quizzes should have defined benchmarks on key skill sets for each subject area at each grade level. When the quizzes are properly analyzed, workshops should be allocated to cater students on any deficiencies
- Propose legislation to legally define a school voucher as a flat tax return in the form of a voucher. The current Florida Constitution prohibits the use of public funds in the form of a school voucher to be used for private education. The legal redefinition would allow the interchangeability of a school voucher to be use for public and private education.
Problem:
- Unemployment rates reach all time high in Florida. Small businesses are failing at an alarming rate and investors are reluctant to enter Florida’s business environment.
Effects:
- Self perpetuating cycle with regards to people losing their jobs, not being able to be productive and re-stimulate the economy
- Investors have become fearful towards investing and moving their businesses to the Sunshine State
- Exhaustive licensing, burdensome regulation, regressive taxation and expensive impact fees are forcing businesses to relocate or close
Solutions:
- Reduce regulatory burdens that hamper business growth
- Reduce impact fees that would prevent potential investors from doing business
- Create incentives for businesses creating more than 1,000 jobs to move into the State by allowing them to be tax exempt for 5 years
- Address currently harmful legislation by allowing them to sunset out of existence.
- Remove business tax assessments that pay for Florida’s subsidized insurance policies or allow them to seek exemptions. This would allow a more hospitable climate for out of state business to invest in Florida.
- Establish micro-lending for small business where the proceeds go directly back to the micro lending fund. Often, a business needs a small cash infusion to reach the next level....$10,000 capital could elevate a business from a $100,000 a year business to $250000 a year.
- Encourage a return to true free market principles through a Sherman Anti-Trust Act type of legislation against all levels of Florida government. Government promotes monopolies instead of free markets that benefit small business and customers. Why do we have only one taxi cab or garbage service for an area? Competition will always improve service, lower prices and create jobs. A good example of productive competition is that the US Postal Service has been forced to improve the quality of service and reduce cost with the advent of DHL, UPS and FedEx.
- Establish economic enterprise zones in high unemployment areas as to incentivize business investment opportunity within that region.
Problem:
- Health Care costs are out of control and people cannot afford the services.
Effects:
- More and more people are going without healthcare coverage due to rising costs
- The current legal system has created a poor environment for people to practice in the medical profession
- Doctors are being forced to leave the state
Solutions:
- Enact malpractice tort reform by establishing ceilings on the level of compensation for damages due to negligence.
- Require malpractice actions to include not only medical experts but also statistical experts. A case in point is cerebral palsy (C.P.) malpractice actions which have resulted in soaring Caesarian section rates, but which have NOT in turn resulted in any reduction in the rate of C.P.
- Incorporate performance contracts to limit malpractice lawsuits thereby reducing malpractice insurance.
- Create a medical voucher system. A portable medical voucher will provide flexible purchasing power to the consumer much like a veteran who can go to any college of their choice through the G.I. Bill.
- Foster a business environment to create a medical health savings account
- Have state reciprocity with licensed professionals as we do with Concealed Weapon Permits (CCW). If you have a CCW, it is recognized in 30 other states. Physicians, nurses, chiropractors, etc should be allowed to practice in the same way if other states meet up to Florida’s stringent qualification standards.
- Allow regulatory federalism and portability so that if a person wants to buy a cheaper insurance plan in another state, regulation is handled by the second state. This creates free markets and competition which would drive prices down.
- End mandated coverage and allow people the option to pick the things they want covered. Mandated coverage only brings cost up. Why should you be forced to pay for smoking cessation or drug abuse treatment if you do neither? Why should you have to pay for hairpiece coverage if you don't want to? If car insurance was like health care insurance and if it provided coverage for everything, a typical oil change would go up from $20 to over $100.
- If there is overlap on job functions, nurses and physician assistants should be allowed to perform the same functions a doctor does in those cases. This would immediately begin to reduce the price of care. Of course, proper accountability and oversight would be required in such a situation.
- Allow tax reimbursement to medical professionals for providing care to the uninsured and the poor.
- Currently, physicians only receive .33 cents on the dollar for every medicare/medicaid patient, propose legislation for them to receive .50 to .66 cents on the dollar.
- Enact malpractice tort reform by establishing judicial review panels to throw out frivolous law suits.
Problem:
- Florida’s insurance market through the Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (FCPIC), the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (CAT Fund), and the private insurance industry offers the worst of all worlds: high rates, little consumer choice, extensive government intervention, and severe risks to the states’ taxpayers.
Effects:
- As of February 2008, it represented a potential liability of $32 billion for the state of Florida and added over $7 billion to the state debt. The state has over $2 trillion in total coastal exposure, the most of any state.
- Travelers, Nationwide, USAA, Hartford, State Farm, and Allstate—which collectively write more than 70 % of all insurance in the country—have all cut back or eliminated property and casualty operations in the state.
Solutions:
- State should adopt a “flex rating” system that allows insurers some flexibility to change rates without unduly disrupting the insurance system
- Significantly reduces the Cat Fund’s potential liabilities by removing the TICL layer and graduated defunding of CAT.
- Reduce regulatory burdens on private insurance companies to allow them to be more competitive with FCPIP.
- Consider certain provisions to provide relief to people living on fixed incomes and receiving Citizens coverage.
Cut Government Spending and Regulations
Problem:
- Florida has a $3.2 billion deficit for fiscal year 2010 to balance, $5.6 billion for 2011, and $5.3 billion for 2012. Florida is mandated to have a balance budget. In order balance the state’s budget, the legislatures would have to do a combination of cutting government and taxing from people and businesses.
Effect:
- Government would procure revenue enhancing techniques through more regulations, licensing, fees, fines, and penalties. Florida driver licenses and auto tags has increased to 50% in some cases.
- Any burden place upon individuals and businesses is a further loss of economic freedom, civil freedom, and opportunity which in essence is a drift away from the Jeffersonian philosophy toward prosperity. Fishing in a pier/canal requires a person to have a permit. The permit becomes an economic cost to the person, a loss of individual sovereignty because he/she would have to get permission from the government, and an opportunistic cost because of criminalization for lack of compliance.
Solutions:
- Eliminate redundant and overlapping agencies (federal, state, county, city, municipal). The consolidation of duplicative programs will save money and improve government service.
- Assert state sovereignty by requiring public officials to demand that federal agencies coordinate federal policies and regulations with less-restrictive state and local ones.
- Eliminate the need for last minute quarterly spending. Government has a mentality of “spend the budget or lose it next time mentality.” I would propose a credit in the form of a voucher toward the application for future budgets would help alleviate the situation.
- Convert government employee (state level on down) health insurance benefits to Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and high deductible insurance plans (catastrophic). Florida could save millions of dollars while at the same time allow free market forces to drive down the cost of health care.
- I would close the double dipping of earnings by amending Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) program. This would save Florida $300 million a year.
