Make big business pay up to fix budget

With the coronavirus crisis pummeling Florida’s budget, debates have already started about how lawmakers should patch the financial holes.

Should they scrap long-overdue teacher raises?

Or should they raid the state’s affordable housing fund?

No and no. Neither one.

In fact, I’m going to submit that anyone who starts the discussion by asking you which valuable service you want to is offering you a false choice within a bogus framework.

Lawmakers don’t have to cut any of that. Instead, they can just stop giving away the farm to corporations.

Just look at the numbers. Two months ago, Gov. Ron DeSantis agreed to give corporations another $543 million in tax refunds approved by the Legislature.

That was more than enough to fund the entire $500 million plan for teacher raises.

These guys knew darn well that a financial storm was looming. A March 25 headline in the Sentinel was clear as day: “As Florida’s economy crashes, DeSantis says he’s going ahead with $543 million in tax refunds for corporations.”

Yet now we’re reading stories about how might need to make sacrifices?

Or the working poor?

What irresponsible nonsense. Yet this nonsense is part of a longstanding policy trend in Florida: Let corporations skate on taxes. And then try make up the difference by asking individual taxpayers to bear a higher tax burden … and by shortchanging everything from education to mental health.

That’s right, we’re talking budgets and taxes today — something that can seem dreadfully dull. Believe me, I get it. Heck, when I just now typed the phrase “tax burden,” it felt like I was offering you a verbal dose of Zzzquil.

But this stuff is important. These are the policy issues that