Haridopolos panders again

This is getting ridiculous. Here we are, in the midst of the worst fiscal crisis since World War II (brought on by Republicans at both the state and federal levels, naturally), and Sen. Mike Haridopolos (R-Indialantic) just won't stop beating a tax-cut horse that should have expired long ago.

[Haridopolos'] proposal would put before voters in 2010 a proposed constitutional amendment to cap local taxation. It includes provisions for local governments to exceed the limits by a vote in local referendums.

More than 20 lined up in the Senate Community Affairs Committee to oppose the idea.

"Our state taxation system must allow for the levy of sufficient taxes," said Marilynn Wills, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida. "This proposal would cause continual shrinkage in the amount of revenue available to meet Florida's … needs."

Haridopolos, a Merritt Island Republican* set to be Senate President in 2010, said he will work with all opponents as he did in 2008 to defeat a similar -- flawed by Haridopolos's reckoning -- proposed amendment put on the ballot by the Taxation and Budget Revision Commission and thrown off by the Florida Supreme Court.

There were further complaints. "I'm not sure how this thing works," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida Association of Superintendents of Schools. "It's as close to creating governmental paralysis as anything I've ever seen."

Well, that's just it, Dr. Blanton. Haridopolos and his cronies in the Legislature want nothing more than to paralyze state government, so they can claim that it never worked in the first place. Of course, government led by Republicans notoriously doesn't work well, especially now that they've entrenched themselves as the party of free spending, high debt, and economic ruin, but that's not going to stop ol' Mikey from pandering like his political life depended on it (which, because he can't really do anything else right, it probably does).

While the proposal isn't, strictly speaking, a tax cut, it would drastically limit state revenues at a time when revenues ought to increase, or at the very least not be capped. It's irresponsible, it's dangerous, and it's classic Haridopolos. This joker is in line to be Senate President in 2010 ... and that, as much as anything else, ought to tell you what bad shape the Florida Legislature is in these days.

So pander away, Mikey ... and run the state even farther into the ground than you and your pals already have. After all, that's really what you want, isn't it?

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* He's always been identified -- including in the linked article, at first -- as being from Indialantic, so I don't get the Merritt Island reference. In any event, he's from and he represents Brevard County, which almost makes him batshit crazy by definition.