Not satisfied to wait for the Frye-Muellers’ constitutional amendment to ban property taxes and bankrupt public schools and local governments, rookie Senator John Carley (R-29/Piedmont) proposes Senate Bill 58 to eliminate property taxes.
Rather than striking property tax from the books, SB 58 takes the curious approach of capping property tax levies at zero dollars/cents per thousand dollars of taxable valuation. It would be simpler to strike the language authorizing property taxes in statute, similar to the Frye-Muellers’ initiative to strike the language authorizing property taxes from the state constitution. The only good reason I can think of take the wordy and somewhat ridiculous approach of authorizing a tax but capping it at zero is to allow current amenders and future Legislatures to more easily change the statutes to reïnstate actual levies if they decide that knocking another leg out from under the state’s already tottering fiscal stool is a bad idea.
Senator Carley’s zero-cap stands zero chance of passing, because only Carley and a handful of other conservative fiscal kamikazes would crash the primary funding vehicle of schools, counties, and towns without providing an alternative revenue stream to keep local governments alive. SB 58 contains one measly hint of state funding to replace over $2 billion in lost property tax revenue: Section 1 directs the Bureau of Finance and Management to “recommend to the Joint Committee on Appropriations an amount to be appropriated each year to be transferred to political subdivisions of this state for their necessary expenditures.”
Read that line closely. Section 1 of SB 58 does not promise to fund schools and counties and towns. It sure as heck doesn’t say where the money BFM recommends would come from. SB 58 has no guarantee, no funding mechanism, no practical plan, and no guts.
If Senator Carley were serious about creating a more sustainable and equitable tax system, he’d offer a real plan that says how much it will cost to reduce property taxes and who will pay the difference.
Well their working to get rid of property tax in Florida. Our beloved Governor dumSantis needs something to run on.
However something needs to change. I just put a new roof on my house, thereby my taxes went up 600 dollars. You know basic upkeep shouldn’t do that.
The South Dakota Republican Party isn’t about growth; it’s about keeping Social Security recipients alive just long enough to pay the property taxes that sustain red state failure.
I think Carley’s serious. He’s just never had an original ideal in his entire life.