Crist opens West Miami book on Rubio
by Michael C. Bender | March 12th, 2010
Gov. Charlie Crist on Fox News this morning said he’s being thumped in the polls right now by fellow Republican Marco Rubio because “nobody has talked about his record.”
What part of his record is no one talking about?
“The fact that he voted for increases in property taxes while he was a West Miami city commissioner. He never talks about that,” Crist said. “In fact, he says he didn’t ever vote for a tax increase. It’s just not true. I never voted for a tax increase. That is true.”
Rubio says on his Web site that he never voted for a tax increase, which is misleading at best.
As a state lawmaker, he voted for several state budgets that increased property taxes to pay for schools. But he told us that he voted for those budgets because they paid for Meals on Wheels.
Rubio campaign says he doesn’t consider these tax increases, because tax rates decreased. But that’s the same argument Rubio often ridiculed city and county officials for making: During the real estate boom last decade government officials regularly lowered tax rates, just not enough to offset increasing property values. That resulted in a net increase on property tax bills.
As for his days as a West Miami city commissioner, back in 2007 we wrote about his proposal as speaker to cap local property taxes at the rate of inflation - a standard neither he nor his fellow Republican leaders lived up to as city and county officials.
We should point out that while Crist technically didn’t vote for the budget last year, his signature made it law. That budget included $2 billion in new fees and cigarette tax increases.
Rubio’s camp also pointed us to articles from the Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times that indicate Crist voted for tax increases as a state senator.
Tags: Charlie Crist, Marco Rubio, property taxes
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March 12th, 2010 at 11:18 am
And while Crist cannot vote… nor does he have a record long enough in any one government position to show a trend, He has recommended many items, including direct tax increases, or indirect tax increases by way of suggesting spending beyond current capacity…
March 12th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Charlie is such a douche, I guess the 1/2 billion dollar bailout of U.S. Sugar will be paid for with fairy dust…
March 12th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Crist’ political team needs to realize that this is not and never will be about Marco Rubio. To try to make it that, he will lose big.
This is an audit on Crist’s job performance as a Republican Governor. At the beginning of the campaign, he sat back, arrogantly, and allowed Rubio to define him. Now, Charlie must lay in the bed he made.
The main reason Charlie doesn’t talk much about policy is because he has flip-flopped on almost every major issue in this election: stimulus, healthcare, cap and trade. He has placed himself in a position where if he talks too much about policy, there is almost certainly record of him taking the opposite position.
In summary, he has built this house himself, and he has no one to blame for the position he is in but himself. Politics is all about timing, and Marco is in the right place at the right time against the right opponent.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I can’t wait until Crist has more time on his side to work on that tan.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Be careful what you wish for……All I can say is:
Charlie Crist > Marco Rubio
March 12th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
I guess when one lies about their sexual orientation all their life they just naturally lie about everything else. He’s complaining about haircuts and such when he and his crooked cronieslike Sargent, Hosseini, Rothstein and others have stole Florida taxpayers blind. CharLIE, we know you can’t stop lying, its your nature! Please just stop talking, yo are digging yourself deeper and deeper. Soon the feds will be knocking anyway. Then we’ll find out about your record!
March 12th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Don’t forget his buddy Jim Greer’s lavish spending. Crist doesn’t want to talk about that.
March 12th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Whjen the Crist crooked cronies put Thrasher in as RPOF Chairman the stirrings about the Greer corruption scandals at the RPOF stopped. Thats all they wanted. They wanted the stories to stop before they included McCollum. Not to worry Crist, McCollum and many more will surface as persons of interest by the time the feds get through with the Rothstein investigation.