Florida GOP hits Ausley on tax votes

RPOF is out with another update to its "Costly Ausley" website, hitting Loranne Ausley for six votes against three bills to reduce the so-called intangible personal property tax. The last bill finally eliminating the tax was approved in 2006. It cost $130 million in the first year and $160 million the next year.

"With a long record of raising taxes, increasing the size of government, and stifling Florida's economy, there is much more to reveal about Loranne Ausley," RPOF Executive Director Ronnie Whitaker. "Today is just the latest disturbing example of Ausley's job-killing tax hikes for Floridians to know about." (Of course, the vote was against cutting the tax, so "tax hike" isn't exactly correct -- she voted for keeping the tax rate the same.)

Ausley spokesman Kevin Cate sent out a pre-rebuttal to the attack: Senate President Jeff Atwater has raised more than $2 billion dollars in taxes and fees and accepted nearly $10 billion dollars in stimulus funding, but he seems to have amnesia about his own record. Atwater is hiding behind the disgraced Republican Party of Florida, whose own financial oversight was so poor that it has led to arrests, indictments and now potential law suits, to try and attack Loranne Ausley.

Comments

[Flip Jones]

Ausley votes to keep taxes the same. Atwater votes to lower them. In all the mess Ausley's pr flack discussed, he never denies that is the truth.

[Anne]

Atwater voted for lower taxes, but check how many licenses and fees that he has voted for during his tenure. I'm voting against every senator and representative who voted for me to have my septic tank dug up and inspected every five years. I guess they forgot the pledge of "getting government out" of my life.