Here we go again. They are going to fight an oil well fire with a garden hose. I am talking about the real estate tax crisis. And believe me, it's a crisis. You have to review the fourteen possible solutions to the crisis and then you will understand. The suggestions run the gamut from tax exemption portability to a 12 percent or 14 percent sales tax. A tax of this amount will be absolutely a shot in the arm for tourism. With our luck, the bullet will travel to the heart and kill the tourism trade and the local economy.
You can't solve the tax problem until you kill the massive appetite the government has for spending. By the next budget hearings, you will see what I mean. You can change anything you want, but until the government spends less, the problem of taxation will be a rope around our necks.
My advice is to listen carefully and watch the legislature very closely. There are some real harebrain schemes they are going to try and rush through to placate the taxpayer.
How about a flat tax or a budget tied to inflation and only funding necessities? Do we really need palm trees and brick streets? The answer is NO!
Ric Cornelius is the Broker/Manager of Sand Key Realty Sales and Rentals, Inc. Visit us at 740 S. Gulfview Blvd., Clearwater Beach, (727-443-0032) or at 309 Belleview Blvd., Belleair, (727-461-4200).
Ric Cornelius is the Broker/Manager of Sand Key Realty Sales and Rentals, Inc. Sand Key Realty has three offices with 40 agents. One office is at 740 S. Gulfview Blvd., Clearwater Beach, 727-443-0032; the second office is at 2701 Gulf Blvd., Indian Rocks Beach, 727-595-5441; and the third office is at 309 Belleview Blvd., Belleair, 727-461-4200.