Tax for Broward seniors hits anti-tax wall in Tallahassee

TALLAHASSEE — Through the years, voters in Broward have proven one thing: They’re a soft touch whenever politicians ask for money.

Call them generous, or simply liberals who love government programs, but time and again they have voted to raise taxes to address unmet needs. School construction? Sure. Higher teacher pay? Of course. Reduce gridlock? Absolutely.

With that track record, it’s hard to fault the logic of county legislators who hit on the idea of expanding services for a fastgrowing elderly population by raising property taxes.

The only hitch is that this small tax increase requires a vote of the people, and that means the Legislature must approve. Fat chance. No Republican in Tallahassee wants to talk about taxes, especially in an election year, and particularly if the idea is coming from deep-blue Broward. So it went nowhere. Halfway through the session, it’s dead.

This failure comes 20 years after people in Broward first voted to tax themselves to help kids. The Children’s Services Council was born in a county-wide referendum in 2000, and is a case of community-wide collaboration with a single mission: to improve kids’ lives.

If you own a home, you’re helping. Homeowners in Broward will pay a little more in property taxes this year to support the council’s $100 million budget. The tax is 49 cents for every $1,000 of property value, or $83 a year for an average-sized home. Broward is one of eight counties in Florida along with Palm Beach and Miami-Dade with voter-approved independent taxing districts for children’s services.

Using the children’s council as a model, lawmakers wanted to create another taxing district for services for residents 60 and older. House Bill 983 was sponsored by Rep. Richard Stark, D-Weston, and it met a quick death in a committee chaired by Rep. Scott Plakon, a Republican from suburban Orlando, who could not provide a reason for killing it.

“Only that I decided not to hear it,” Plakon told the

Broward has more than 420,000 residents over age 60 and will soon add many more in a demographic surge known as a “silver tsunami.” This rapidly-aging population will greatly increase demands for skimpy services.

County Commissioner Nan Rich, a champion of the idea, said the county has not increased spending on elderly programs for 15 years. The Community Foundation

of Broward found less than 5 percent of the county’s budget is dedicated to programs for seniors in a county with the state’s fastestgrowing population of people 80 and over. That’s a shameful record.

But Tallahassee bears much of the blame. Ever since Republicans won control more than two decades ago, they have favored the big businesses that bankroll their campaigns at the expense of the rest of us. Tallahassee politicians push problems down to cities and counties, then micromanage them or strip them of home-rule power.

The senior services council would provide “preventive, developmental, treatment, rehabilitative, and other services” to older people. If voters approve, the council would be the first of its kind in Florida, and could levy a property tax of 50 cents for every $1,000 of value. In Broward, that works out to about $100 million a year.

The recent tax hikes for schools, teachers and roads are in addition to county and city taxes and a patchwork quilt of singlepurpose taxing districts that can levy property taxes on Broward residents. There are dozens of water, drainage and development districts and two public hospital districts that also levy property taxes, in a county where the cost of living keeps rising. Enough already.

Repeatedly asking voters to raise taxes on themselves is literally passing the buck, and it shows a failure of leadership by elected leaders who won’t take the heat for raising taxes. But it is also not right that politicians in Palatka and Pensacola can deprive Broward voters of being heard in a referendum on a local matter. If they want to raise their own taxes, it’s their business. But as usual, Tallahassee is the problem, not the solution.

If this is the first you’ve heard of a new tax for seniors, it’s not by accident. Helping Grandma may be popular, but even Democrats don’t talk about taxes in a year when many have to face the voters. As Rep. Stark, the bill’s sponsor and a candidate for mayor of Weston, puts it: “We do things for people who request things.”

The ill-fated bill was named in memory of Edith Lederberg, one of Broward’s most devoted advocates for the elderly, who died last year at 89. She didn’t live long enough to see a special taxing district for seniors, and many more won’t, either.

Repeatedly asking voters to raise taxes on themselves is literally passing the buck, and it shows a failure of leadership by elected leaders who won’t take the heat for raising taxes.