a florida Legislature really wants to tax your butt hard

renovation

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's Legislature is flush with good ideas. Sen. Al Lawson's involves a 2 cent-per-roll tax on toilet paper to pay for wastewater treatment and help small towns upgrade their sewer systems.

The Democratic lawmaker's pay-as-you-go bill has been the source of many jokes - bathroom humor you might say - but he says the issue is a serious one, especially in some of the fast-growing Panhandle coastal counties in his district.

"They're experiencing a tremendous boom in growth and they're not able to accommodate the growth," Lawson said. "We've got 17 million people in this state and all of them can contribute to protecting our underground water supply."

In a Republican-dominated Legislature that doesn't like new taxes, the idea is likely to pretty quickly end up in the tank.

Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he didn't think it would get too far, but didn't rule it out.

"We'll be getting to the bottom of it real soon," Lee said.

The House is skeptical as well.

"We're not wild about tax increases," said House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City. "But we'll certainly let it go through the system."

If it were to pass, the extra two pennies would start being charged in October. Lawson said it could generate $50 million a year.

It would also need approval from Gov. Jeb Bush. He said that if toilet paper is taxed, people might use less of it.

"That's not necessarily a good thing," noted the governor.

And what about consumers? Wouldn't they be squeezed by a tax on the Charmin?

No, says Lawson.

"Two cents is not going to hurt families at all," he said. "This is one thing people don't mind paying for."
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BeerCheeze · Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:35:34 Post Subject:

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Sad to say I knew this was coming on all sorts of items when in the 80's some states started tacking on the "recycling" fee when you bought a can/bottle of pop. I said back then, that once that goes over, and it's common place, then they'll find other things to tack on a few cents tax to help the environment.

Not that a few cents is a bad thing, but after they tax that, then they'll tax anything that comes in a can or bottle. Then it'll be things packaged in cardboard. Never ends...

HackaX0rus · Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 13:11:46 Post Subject:

People from flordia better make sure not to Bad Air

when they have diareah... Laughing

misty · Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:20:52 Post Subject:

HackaX0rus · Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 15:38:07 Post Subject:

Those Bushes Laughing

they are a hoot.

FOX · Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 17:54:09 Post Subject:

knight0334 · Posted: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 18:55:26 Post Subject:

Wasn't this a real event??

When asked, "Why dont we tax the air the people breath?", Senator Edward Kennedy said, "Why didn't I think of that?"/