House Dems taunt GOP with income tax and Aretha
by John Kennedy | April 7th, 2011House Democrats pull out the income tax bogeyman and evoked Aretha Franklin in arguing against making public employees pay 3 percent of their income to take part in the Florida Retirement System.
Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, thanked ruling House Republicans for their anticipated support for what he hinted was a tax that will backfire on the majority party in next year’s elections.
“Everybody who pushes the green button is voting for a tax, and the Democratic Party thanks you,” Clemens said.
House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West sought to have the legislation (CS/HB 1405) ruled in violation of House rules, because it’s a bill — but should be a ballot proposal if lawmakers are seeking to enact an income tax. Saunders also told Republicans they should remember the lyrics of Aretha Franklin.
“You better think,” Saunders said, but refraining from song. “Think. Think about what you’re doing to me.”
After a brief huddle and a rule-book review, Rules Chairman Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, decided against Saunders’ motion. Aubuchon said any questions about the constitutionality of the pension contribution would be for courts to decide.
Tags: Aretha Franklin, House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders, income tax, Rep. Jeff Clemens, soul
April 7th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
God forbid and employee contribute a little $ toward THEIR retirement account…
April 7th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
They already do contribute through other tax sources. Republicans have no problem taxing the poor and the middle class. REpublicans are hypocrites.
April 7th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
No problem NOBAMA, try paying us a decent wage and that will be easy. If private business employee saves the company a million dollars, they give them a big bonus. If a government employee saves a million dollars you don’t even get a “thanks”. You will be lucky if your boss doesn’t take credit for it. And then there is YOU! Another whiner that probably has a boat, a big car and have recieved a bonus here or their in your paycheck. YOU ARE LUCKY TO HAVE A JOB! That is OUR WORLD YOU WHINER. When the economy improves you will be living the good life again and the government employees will still be left with your trickle down, and I mean “trickle”.
April 7th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Fascist Scott is the BEST THING to happen to the Democratic Party since Palin!
Check any of the polls!
Obama 2012!
Hillary 2016!
April 7th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
How much are our illustrious representatives paying into their pension?
I do not know if they are – but would like to know if they are not….
April 7th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
This is the best news I’ve heard all week. If they’re going to tax our income, then let’s tax everyone’s income, that would certainly balance the budget. And that’s exactly what you’re talking about doing, taxing our income. We already pay taxes, just like you do, that goes to our retirement. Any other input is an income tax, and you can’t only tax certain member’s of a population.
April 7th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
RA Sanders – Nothing. There was an amendment proposed yesterday that elected officials pay 7%, in a “lead by example” effort, and (I was watching live) I literally thought some of them were going to cry. While my husband pays a proposed 4% on his less than $28K. Cry me a river.
April 7th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
He’s from Lake Worth…what do you expect with all the fringe people who live there.
April 7th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
The taxpayer is continually hobbled by the unions. It’s not their salaries or safety issues; it’s the perks and benefits that kill us.
April 7th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
To the state employees, NO ONE is forcing you to work for the state. We, in the private sector, pay for our increasing health insurance, contribute to our 401Ks, why can’t you?
Health insurance costs have gone up every year – do state workers pay for that? No, we the taxpayers do.
Welcome to the real world.
April 7th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Do you really think that we haven’t paid more every year for our insurance? What comes out of our check AND my co-pays for everything, dr visits and prescriptions went up in January. And you, in the private sector, benefit directly from what public employees provide. If there weren’t public employees, you’d be without services that you depend on. What happens when you call 911 and no one answers? There’s no police to come, no firemen to come, no paramedics to come? You want longer, stronger prison sentences, what if there are no correctional officers in the prisons? You complain about the state of education, but you want to pay teachers what boils down to less than minimum wage for the hours they put in. These are people who work for YOUR BENEFIT, a lot of them putting their very lives on the line for you. And you’re quibbling about their pensions? You should truly be ashamed.
April 7th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Under a law enacted in 1983, all members of Congress both contribute to and receive benefits from the Social Security system. Upon retirement, members receive either a combination of federal pension and Social Security benefits or Social Security alone, depending upon when their term of service started and how they configured their individual plan.
Members elected after 1983 pay into the Federal Employees Retirement System. Members elected before 1983 participate in the older Civil Service Retirement Program. In both cases, members of Congress contribute to the plans at a slightly higher rate than ordinary federal employees.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blcongress.htm
April 7th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Lots of people — some of whom should know better — start bemoaning the “free health insurance” provided by the government to members of Congress.
Simply stated, there is no such thing.
Here are the facts.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,308378,00.html
April 7th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
@JD your link is for fox news! Give me a break, between fox and cnn noone gets the truth, why do you think fox is taking Beck off and why do you think cnbc got rid of oberman, because they scew the facts to best fit them and thats all the teabaggers are doing and thats all the dem. are doing! I am a state employee, I could care less about having to pee in a cup or even putting 2% toward my retirement, but all you idiots out there who say we dont already contribute, I guess I dont pay taxes on gas, groceries, my home, my cars, wow that would be nice! But guess again I pay the same taxes you all pay! We have no state payroll tax so I pay the same as anybody else morons! So now I will have to pay twice into my own retirement! Does the private sector do that–NO! Oh ya if I lose my job because he wants to cut 5000 Correction Officers, your welcome! Im glad my high salary of 30,000 will balance this bald Fu$% budget!
April 7th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
It’s not a tax. You’ll be paying into your pensions just like private sector employees (that actually have pensions) do, then you get the money when you retire.
Many private sector employees don’t even get pensions these days and if you check the statistics most private employees make less than their public sector counterparts. Nobody is forcing you to work for the government. If you don’t like the terms go compete in the private sector. Someone will fill your job before your chair gets cold.
April 7th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
your and idiot SR, simply put an Idiot! So I dont already put into my pension show me? Show me were then the taxes I am paying are going! And your dumb ass coment about state employees making more is a joke, thats why the gov. sit Floridahasarighttoknow, backfired on him because people out there can see how little we do make! So then why dont we put a state payroll tax of 3% for everybody its the same freaking thing idiot! Go check the site out and see the 542 making 100,000 a year in retirment, what he doesnt show is the 280,000 making only 16,000 a year in retirement which you can find on the frs(florida retirement system) site, just a comparising for you state corrections, starts at 28,000 up north and 30,000 here in the south, county you start at 42,000 in martin and palm beach and 38,000 in st lucie, I have made the same amount 31,000 for the last 6 years they get raises(county) so simply Fu#$ off!
April 7th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
TampaBay.com = DEMOCRATS
Every article that comes to the post thru that democrat site is an example of the Post’s continued bias.
April 7th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
All this BS about private sector: You can’t identify one private retirement plan that is MANDATORY as a condition of employment. It is a TAX! And all this crying about health care is a joke. The only government employees getting sweet cheap health insurance are the LEGISLATORS. Hypocritical scum!
April 8th, 2011 at 4:31 am
The Lake Worth guy is in a 80 coverband…dude he is just looking for another gig or to be a rock star…and he is like 50. Loser
April 8th, 2011 at 9:25 am
For all those who complain that the private sector doesn’t have pensions or medical insurance, don’t blame that on public employees. You have no one to blame but yourselves. The reason why most companies don’t offer a pension plan is because many corporations that had pensions for their employees reneged on their promise and declared bankruptcy to avoid living up to the contract they had with their workers!!! Every major corporation in America decided to give their current and former employees the shaft on their earned retirement benefits and you all took it up the culo without a word of protest!! No one asked “Where did that money go?”? It went into the pockets of their executives or to pay off horrible business decisions made by the executives. This business model was the hallmark acheivement of “trickle-down” economics. Every time Ivan Boesky broke up a company after an insider trading scam he called a “merger and acquisition”, he kept the funded pension plan instead of ensuring the workers a return on their investment of time and sweat equity into the company. The only people who tried to stop this from happening to decent, hard working Americans in the private sector were PUBLIC EMPLOYEES working for the SEC and for the Treasury Dept. It certainly was no one in the Republican Party. Poppy Bush? Dick Cheney? Newt Gingrich? Bob Dole? They got their hands greased with campaign cash from industries like airlines and auto companies while you got your backside greased with Vaseline.
The reason companies in the private sector don’t offer decent healthcare benefits as part of a compensation package is because the people working there DID NOT DEMAND THEM OR WALK OFF THE JOB WHEN THE BENEFITS WERE BEING CUT! Each Republican controlled legislature since 1995 has been slowly and certainly slicing away at the benefits earned by the middle class and giving those slices to people already wealthy beyond the ability to squander their assets. First they redefine the size of a “small” business so employers with a larger workforce could keep more profit by not purchasing decent healthcare plans for their employees. Then they deregulate the market for healthcare so that guys like Rick Scott could consolidate hospitals and shut down less profitable (but not un-profitable) locations for delivery of medical services and drive up the costs for those services by monopolistically limiting the supply.
You tea party idiots get on these comment boards and rail against the benefits that public employees get when you should be railing against the Republican Party, the political party that has been engineering the destruction of the middle class since 1980. Nixon sucked, but at least he was of the middle class and wouldn’t seek out policies to destroy their ability to prosper. Bluebloods like Bush and his Yalie ilk have been trying to keep the working man boxed in a hole of wage slavery since Woodrow Wilson was president. Don’t take that out on a teacher or cop or firefighter. Place the blame on a Republican politician where it rightfully belongs.
April 8th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Since there is no state income tax, I do not think that the tax payers are actually Floridians. The tax payers are the tourists that come to South Florida. The Floridians just benefit from the taxes others pay. There is a reason why state employees need to be paid well: we do not sell “trinkets”. We teach your children, protect your safety, take care of the weak, the poor, the orphan and the old, make sure that your well does not run dry, that your house does not flood, that you can go fish, and that overdevelopment does not kill your property values and your health. Yep, if I leave my job someone else will come take it. Just wonder who. I will probably be going for yours though.
April 10th, 2011 at 5:52 am
I see Jeff Clemens is doing a good job at keeping his job and not doing what is right for his constituents. How pathetic is it when an elected official swarn to uphold the people’s best interest blatantly admits he makes his decisions on possible elections results.