Greek mythology tells us that after a decade of fighting, the Greeks had failed to breach the walls of Troy. The Greeks, under the leadership of Odysseus, decided to change tactics. They pretended to give up the fight and constructed a large wooden horse as a gift to the Trojans that would serve as a commemorative “We beat the Greeks” statue. If this was a modern story, they’d have engraved a hashtag in it, #TroyUnbeatable.

But the clever Odysseus wasn’t giving up. He and his best warriors climbed inside the hollow horse and sat silently while the Trojans hauled the “gift” into their secure city. What masqueraded as a moment of victory was actually the moment Troy orchestrated its own destruction! The people of Troy lined the streets, cheered, and shared in a public celebration for a “gift” that led to the end of the life they’d known.

I can’t help seeing the parallels between this and the ruse currently being promoted to Floridians. For over a decade, our State Legislature has been intentionally dismantling local government authority. As a lifelong Republican, I’ve been confused by this. Philosophically, we believe in small government and letting communities decide for themselves what they want. After all, Florida is full of incredibly diverse spaces. Just think of Miami, St. Augustine, Tallahassee, Cedar Key, and DeFuniak Springs. Each has a distinctive personality you can see, feel, touch, and intuitively understand. They also differ in how much their local governments protect (or not) that personality. It’s one of the things that makes Florida so special; allowing residents and businesses to pick a location that most closely reflects their own philosophy.

That’s what Republicans believe philosophically. But in practicality, for over ten years, the Republican-led State Legislature has incessantly filed bills to take power from those local spaces and give more power to themselves. Thankfully, many of those bills have failed. And that’s why I believe Big Brother Government advocates decided to employ the Trojan Horse method.

Local governments (aka counties and cities) provide for law enforcement, fire departments, water accessibility, garbage pickup, local roads and infrastructure, parks and libraries. (There’s more but you get the idea. Basic stuff that impacts your life daily). In the current system they are primarily funded by property taxes. By contrast, the State Government is primarily funded by sales tax.

Here’s where things get wacky.

The State government is proposing elimination of property taxes using the catchy concept “when you own a house, you shouldn’t have to keep paying taxes on it to keep owning it.” Seems logical. Seems to line up with Conservative values. So, many cheer the bill and (metaphorically) want to drag the Trojan Horse into their hometown. State Legislators are the heroes saving us all from the dangerous cost of living crisis we’ve ben enduring. Local politicians are the villains charging you for owning a home in their jurisdiction.

Here’s the sneaky part. Just imagine with me that Mr. Tricky, the CEO of Florida Oil gas stations, held a press conference announcing everything would soon be free. But not at Florida Oil. Mr. Tricky declared everything would be free at McBurger.

Mr. Tricky would get all the applause for giving out free stuff while not costing him a single penny. If the McBurger CEO protested the free food, he’d be villainized.

That’s what the Florida Legislature is doing. They’re declaring elimination of taxes that gut someone else’s budget. They keep all the cash and hero credit. It’s a genius tactic (unless you have integrity).

And what’s inside the Florida Tax Trojan Horse is a tax hike for most of us. I’ll give you a real life example of how I know.

While I was on Brooksville City Council, we struggled with budgeting like any other small city. Only 42% of our residential homeowners paid property taxes because of the existing State exemptions in place. But we had to provide services to 100%. So like many cities, we started moving into “assessments” that everyone had to pay. Your house might not be worth enough to pay property tax on, but now you were paying the same $300 fire tax as people in $3 million homes. End result? At least 58% of homeowners got a tax increase.

That’s just $300 for fire. Now imagine your law enforcement, roads, water, sewer, parks, etc. all become assessment-based. For the majority of Florida homeowners, our taxes will go up unless the local government reduces services. They can eliminate libraries and parks, as well as sidewalk and road improvements. They can downsize law enforcement, reduce trash service to once a week, and defer government building maintenance.

What they can’t do is maintain all services when they’ve lost their primary funding source.

I love local government and think it has the best chance of serving its people well. I can study the budget and raise concerns about waste with an elected official at the ball park or grocery store or take off work to attend a City or County meeting to share my thoughts with the decision-makers. How can I do that with politicians Tallahassee or Washington, DC? There is a level of accountability to politicians at the local level that is impossible to duplicate at State and Federal levels.

Let’s not be fooled by the Trojan Horse. Leave it outside the city gates where the State politicians hidden inside the horse will get sweaty and bored and then have to eventually come out and go away.

We don’t want your tax increase.

We don’t want to centralize power at the State level.

We DO want to decide what is best for the community we choose to live in. Take your Big Brother Government somewhere else. Florida doesn’t want you.

#FloridaUnbeatable

P.S. You may reasonably ask why local government policitians aren’t doing more to warn people of the danger of this bill. Of course are many reasons, but I believe the primary answer is simple if you’ve watched the mafia-like tactics utilized recently in our State Government. If a local politician calls out this bill, they will definitely be accused of being financially irresponsible and unfit for office. But they also risk losing State Appropriations for the area they represent. They might even send in Florida’s CFO (aka “The Muscle” who has over a decade of experience in bullying and playing dirty) to examine their budget and make vague unsubstantiated remarks about “waste.” Local politicians who speak up put their whole community at risk. It’s an uncomfortable Truth, but true nonetheless.