Everyone’s favorite political party “Houdini” Charlie Crist, was at the famous Versailles restaurant in Miami, Florida, doing what he does best, pressing the flesh, and talking to reporters.
Crist seems hell-bent on slashing the state’s budget, and is pressing Governor Scott to call a “cut pork” special session, and push for and increase in funding for education projects.But when Crist was specifically asked what he would cut from the new state budget, Crist failed to cite one thing he believes needs to be cut from the budget.
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The Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo, who asked the question of Crist, had this to say about the ongoing political back-and-forth about raising taxes Crist and Scott are currently involved in.
Team Scott offered these two bullet points to contrast the two men:“Rick Scott is trying to boast that he increased education funding. Well, he did it by raising property taxes about $400 million,” Crist said.
What Crist didn’t mention: the tax rate didn’t increase, but the tax base and taxable values did — and property taxes used to pay for education rose under Crist as well.
Crist’s new message – that Scott raised taxes – coincides with the governor’s statewide tour to tout his successful push to repeal auto-tag and title taxes that Crist signed into law in 2009, when the former governor broke a pledge to never raise taxes.
• Under Charlie Crist: Taxes were raised by $2.2 billion, state debt increased by $5.2 billion, tuition skyrocketed for Florida students, and hundreds of millions of dollars were cut from K-12 schools that led to thousands of teachers being laid off.
• Under Rick Scott: Taxes have been cut over 25 times, state debt has been reduced by $3.6 billion, tuition has been kept in check, K-12 schools are receiving record funding, and teachers received $480 million in pay raises.
We hold our breath in anticipation to what Crist will cut from the budget, if he sticks to this line of attack against Scott.