Let them eat intangibles

[camero]

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/02/22/Perspective/Let_them_eat_intangib.shtml

By ROBERT FRIEDMAN, Times Deputy Editor of Editorials
Published February 22, 2004


And because I'm also lucky enough to live in Florida - where Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature have devoted themselves to afflicting the afflicted and comforting the comfortable - I get all sorts of breaks that are denied to you average Joes.


In fact, year after year, Florida's state and local taxes are just about the most regressive in the country. The poorest 20 percent of working families in Florida pay 14.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes. By comparison, the wealthiest 1 percent - those earning at least $300,000 a year - pay less than 3 percent.


See? I finally figured out that the self-proclaimed conservatives in Tallahassee aren't really antitax. They're anti-fairness.

They're perfectly happy for blue-collar families to pay hefty taxes on their cars, their clothes and other essentials. That's why sales tax receipts keep going up.

Yes, the rules truly are different here in Florida, where we fortunate few are living in the closest thing to Leona Helmsley's dream world: a special place where only little people pay taxes.

So much for trickle down economics. Will someone tell me how this is fair again? I don't get it. Of course, this is the Governer with the "devious plan".