Republicans in the state Senate have spiked the so-called homestead exemption, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have enabled local governments to shift the property tax burden from homeowners to commercial property owners.
There are good reasons to oppose the legislation, as I’ve blogged in the past: It would hurt renters, who are disproportionately poor and working class, and it would provide the middle class only a temporary reprieve from steadily upward marching tax rates. If lawmakers really want to help taxpayers, quit with the gimmicks and address the rising cost of government.
Unfortunately, according to the Washington Post, the Republicans didn’t cite those legitimate reasons for killing the bill. Aside from worrying about the higher tax on business, they told the Post, “It was a flawed bill that needed more scrutiny. In particular, they said, the language could be construed to let only certain neighborhoods receive the exemption.”
They’re objecting to the legislation on the basis of a technicality? If the language of the bill were corrected so that exemption applied to an entire locality and not just “certain neighborhoods,” they might consider supporting the homestead exemption? C’mon.
The problem with the legislation is that it is structured as a win-lose proposition: For every person who benefits from tax relief, the tax burden gets shifted to someone else. It’s inherently divisive. The only long-term solutions to the problem of overtaxation are productivity and efficiency. That means streamlining government administration. Encouraging the development of human settlement patterns that are less expensive to serve with roads, utilities and services. Squeezing the bureaucratic bloat out of K-12 education. Reforming a dysfunctional health care system that drives up Medicaid costs. Develop programs that rehabilitate prisoners and ease their re-entry into society. Anything else is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.