Michael Mayo The Sun-Sentinel

September 12, 2010

Michael Mayo
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Blvd
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

RE: Could this be a Damascus moment? – Some comments on your column on the unfairness of being fair as it relates to Broward County real estate taxes.

Mr. Mayo,

A Damascus moment is not to be found in the holy, sacred, and as of dawn today, unburnt Koran.

My favorite old time rabbi was Saul of Tarsus. [That he changed his name to Paul for business reasons doesn’t make him a bad guy. Think Jack Benny and George Burns] He was knocked from his horse on the way to Damascus. When he got up he had gone from being very “anti” to being very “pro”. The rest, as is oft times said, is History.

Your Damascus moment may have come in your column this AM when you announce that 5.5% of all condos in Broward County pay zero – as in none – property taxes. This is not to say that the taxes due on these properties aren’t paid; the remaining 94.5% now pay 100% of all the taxes.

It is well to note that falling real estate values plus legislatively mandated tax exemptions have created a new entitlement class. That the beneficiaries of this serendipity will fight ferociously to continue this is a given. The Emergency Rent Control Act that was passed in 1942 in New York City is renewed every year. Having defeated the Germans, the Japanese, and the Italians in 4 years the New York City Council has been unable to defeat an entrenched entitlement class, AKA “renters”. The law has expanded to include rent stabilization. All that has been “controlled” and “stabilized” are the laws governing gravity. It’s easier to say, a la Reverend Wright, “God Damn the landlords”. Would I be ill thought of if I were to point out that there are far more tenants than there are landlords? 80 tenants to each landlord becomes a no-brainer on Election Day. Wasn’t it Red Smith who said “rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel”? Landlords should consider themselves lucky that they haven’t been sent to Abu Ghraib or Camp Gitmo.





Doctor Johnson, the first great blogger, said that “any public policy that involves robbing Peter to pay Paul will always have Paul’s support”. We just can’t get away from Paul, can we?

The one great mantra of modern American Liberalism is equality and the never ending quest for it. Next up is fairness. That both mimic the horizon and Utopia in that one is never to be gotten to and the other literally means nowhere is no impediment to true believers. Sometimes they run into the Constitution. Equal protection under the law is a keystone of our traditions. The problem comes when some people are more equal than others.

When one citizen is able to jump the line and get first dibs on the perpetually lactating public teat it means someone else is going to have to do with less. The unintended consequence of it is that those denied their “fair share” use whatever means are necessary to protect what is on their side of the table. Patrick Kennedy is listed as the next trustee of a trust created in 1936 to benefit his father. His grandfather, Joe the Corsair, may have been a Hitler loving anti-Semite but that didn’t mean he was stupid when it came to taking care of his own. Thank god this lout is without issue or it would have gone to the 4th generation. Modern American Liberals are in love with the “death tax” save for when it reaches out and touches one of their own.

The lesson to be learned here is that tweaking the tax system, any tax system, in such a way that favors a class whose lamentations of impending doom should it not result in special treatment, ends in chaos, confusion, and resentment.

It is possible both to have our cake and eat it. We cannot eat our cake and have it.

I was never prouder to be a citizen of Florida then when we gave Constitutional protection to pregnant pigs. I don’t imagine that the Tea Party will soon be supporting manatee suffrage. The lesson here is that taxes reflect what we spend.

The component parts of the recently received tax bill are intentionally obfuscatory. It is as if the politicians, after doing what they were instructed to do by a caring, sensitive, environmentally conscious, culturally diverse out-reaching electorate, are somewhat embarrassed by the cost.

Alex Sink announces that she will cut all wasteful spending.

I have yet to hear back from her as to which of the existing programs she labels as “wasteful”. I am not sure what “cut” means from someone who was at the heart of the mortgage meltdown. That her boss was Hootie Johnson, the misogynistic mastermind of the Masters, is one of those little gems of public life that should be looked at by someone with a loupe and a scalpel.

The lesson is obvious. If you want to cut taxes you must cut spending.

What could be fairer?

It’s easy for a modern American Liberal to confuse the horse’s head with the horse’s ass. When you mount Dobbin its head should be in front of you.




Kevin Smith