by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Mike Hogan was not concerned Thursday about his 2011 bid for mayor and he wasn’t intimidated by a table full of some of Jacksonville’s most influential civic and private leaders that comprise the chairs of the various Jacksonville Journey committees.
The current Tax Collector talked for nearly 20 minutes about his proposal to limit growth by capping property taxes and implementing a sales tax to make up for the lost revenue. Then the grilling began. For over an hour, each committee chair in attendance questioned the logic behind the bill and wondered why Hogan didn’t back an amendment that would allow an exemption for Jacksonville because of its consolidated government.
After the meeting and after the handshakes, Hogan admitted he pondered turning down the invitation to speak. Hogan also said nothing he heard from anyone — a group that included former Mayor Ed Austin, former Sheriff Nat Glover, former State Sen Betty Holzendorf, former local Republican Party Chair Mike Hightower and several others — will convince him to change his mind.
“I originally told them I would not come,” said Hogan, who is pushing the bill through a statewide tax commission, of which he’s the only representative from Northeast Florida. “I told them if they were going to try to change my opinion about introducing the bill, and bring me here only to spank me, there was no need for me to come. They told me to be parochial. I am not going to do that to the taxpayers of the state.”
Hogan, who admits he intends to run for mayor in 2011, said he’s heard the proposed bill may or may not affect his candidacy.
“Some have called me intimating that it is a bad decision if I am serious about running. Some have called me the other way,” said Hogan. “If they know me, they know it doesn’t matter. I’m going to vote my conviction.”
According to Hogan, the genesis of the bill is to help the entire state by limiting growth. His bill is based on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TBOR), which has been adopted in Colorado. That legislation limits the growth of government through a relatively simple formula: the Consumer Price Index plus the growth rate.
“Government revenue plus spending can’t grow faster than that,” said Hogan, adding exceptions can be made with a two-thirds vote of local elected bodies.
Hogan’s bill deviates some from TBOR by including a 1 percent “fudge factor.” However, the premise is still the same.
“The goal is to tether the growth of government to the ability of the taxpayers to pay for it,” he said. “We call it the Taxpayer Protection Act.”
Hogan’s commission consists of 25 members from across the state. In order to get the bill to first the House of Representatives, then the State Senate, it must get the required minimum 17 votes from his taxing commission.
“I think I have more than that,” he said.
Hogan contends there’s more than enough wiggle room for growth regardless whether a cap exists or not.
“Our (Florida’s) best years were in 2005 and 2006 and didn’t tickle it (the growth cap). It’s too generous,” he said.
Hogan’s detractors are local, most of whom contend Jacksonville’s consolidated form of government has created a system that self-governs better than anywhere else in the state. Thursday, Hogan was repeatedly asked to exempt Jacksonville from his legislation.
Former Jacksonville Jaguar Tony Boselli suggested the bill was another method for Tallahassee to slowly erode the control local governments have and suggested private/public partnerships would be more beneficial than a bill that caps property taxes and adds a sales tax.
“That’s an age-old fight,” said Hogan, who has served on City Council and the State Legislature.
“To raise the sales tax will put a much greater burden on business owners,” said Boselli.
Hogan says the difference between what will be saved on property taxes and the potential sales tax is huge.
“I’d have to spend a whole lot on taxable items to spend as much as I’d save on property taxes,” he said.
Glover said Jacksonville being the “murder capital of the state” is reason enough to leave property taxes alone. He called that distinction “a big stick you can use. It’s almost criminal if you don’t.”
Linda Lanier, executive director of the Jacksonville Children’s Commission, implored Hogan to look into exempting her organization. Because the JCC is a dependent service that relies on funding from the City, Lanier hopes it can be considered a “special district” — something that would make it exempt from the legislation. According to Lanier, from birth to age 18 children only spend 10 percent of their time in school. The Children’s Commission, she says, provides valuable programs that take up a good portion of the other 90 percent. Hogan assured Lanier he would look into who is exempt and who isn’t.