Subject: Taxes

• Quick Takes

  March 26, 2007

• For All You Political Junkies ...

  October 31, 2006

• DeGroot DePants DeSentinel

  September 27, 2006

• When Is A Correction Not Enough?

  June 10, 2006

• Sheriff's Atty: Sun-Sentinel Story On Jenne Was Bogus

  June 8, 2006

• Naugle Sends Pulp A Parable

  April 26, 2007

• DeGroot On The Big Pump Thump

  May 31, 2007

• Ellen Dalton Keeps On Ticking

  August 17, 2007

• Fun With Headlines, Etc

  January 24, 2008

• Recession? What Recession?

  January 28, 2008

• Pulp O' The Mornin'

  January 31, 2008

• Definitely in My Back Yard

  August 20, 1998

• The Straight Dope

  October 8, 1998

• The People's Republic of Area A

  February 25, 1999

• Best Place to Buy Cigarettes

  March 11, 1999

• Beach Bummed: Big Bills Are Sinking Hollywood's Small Hotels

  For decades Hollywood Beach has been the only one in South Florida that could offer tourists an array of small, independent hotels at low nightly rates. That gave the neighborhood a distinct slow-tempo style, and it gave the South Florida's hospitality industry a bit of variety.But the small Hollywood hotels were doing bad even when the economy was still good. They survived the hurricanes, only to see insurance costs double and triple. Property values went up, and their property taxes followed.

  January 21, 2009

• Best Reason to Live in South Florida

  May 13, 2004

• State Republican Does Not Want A Billion Dollars

  Rep. Anitere Flores should be grateful that only dorks like me watch Issues, the Sunday political program on our local public television station WPBT. I can't imagine she'd have wanted her constituents in Kendall / University Park / Westwood Lakes to watch her appearance this past Sunday.Here's a link to the video. The fun starts at 4:45. I'll set it up: The subject is the state legislature's special session -- a two-week stretch this month in which legislators had to somehow plug a $2.6 billion

  January 23, 2009

• Letters for April 28-May 4, 2005

  April 28, 2005

• Best Place to Donate Your Clothes

  May 12, 2005

• Best Politician in Palm Beach

  May 12, 2005

• Haunted House

  A priceless Fort Lauderdale property is sold on the cheap, and it's not the economy, stupid

  March 6, 2008

• Schoolkids, State Workers: You're All Under the Bus for Tax-Shy Legislature

  Our Florida legislators have some budget-cutting to do, but they also need to improve the state's education system, which is fast becoming a national embarrassment. This will take some creativity. Republicans, as the majority party, you're up.flhouse.govAdam HasnerAdam Hasner, Republican from Delray Beach, called a news conference yesterday to herald his party's idea: Let's ask more of our students and teachers by raising graduation standards. Hasner explained that transforming Florida's economy

  March 18, 2009

• Fort Lauderdale "Tea Party" Protest on Tax Day

  Tania GailBesides gnashing one's teeth or making fun of Timothy Geithner's dweebiness, there is little frustrated taxpayers can do about the spiraling-out-of-control federal deficit. To channel their rage, fed-up conservatives have been organizing "tea parties" around the country, mimicking the Boston Tea Party cry of "no taxation without representation."  Event organizers are planning a coordinated, multi-city protest on Tax Day, April 15. Locally, 23-year-old Lauren O'Brien is leading the

  March 23, 2009

• Florida: Where It's Good to be a Smoker, Bad to be a Lung

  Smoke up, Florida! Kentucky raised their state taxes on cigarettes and booze yesterday. Residents will now pay 60 cents in state taxes per pack of cigarettes. So there's good news and bad news for Floridians. This means that the nation's two biggest tobacco-producing states, Kentucky and North Carolina, both have higher taxes on cigarettes than the sunshine smoke-filled state. (North Carolina pays 35 cents per pack; Florida pays 33.9 cents.) But State Bill 1840, approved this week by

  April 2, 2009

• House Owned By Tally Power Players Under Homestead Investigation

  Arduin and Ericks with Jeb BushOne of the GOP's top tax experts is under investigation for her own homestead tax exemption.   The Pulp has learned that the Broward Property Appraisers Office is investigating the homestead exemption on a Fort Lauderdale home owned jointly by two Tallahassee heavyweights: Lobbyist David Ericks and star Republican budgetmeister Donna Arduin. The one-time couple bought the house on a canal with ocean access in the Gill Isle

  April 3, 2009

• Soft Rockin' Beats

  April 9, 2009

• Keep Camels Off Sand

  January 22, 2009

• Triple Play

  May 1, 2008

• Beenie Man

  December 20, 2007

• Freeloaders Who Don't Freeload

  Can you count to $16 billion, gabacho?

  April 12, 2007

• Heartbreak Hotel

  It's the end of an era on Hollywood Beach, where small, cheap motels are all that stand in the way of another playground for the wealthy

  February 8, 2007

• The Tightest Slots in Town

  Aren't you happy you get to shovel money into the shiny new machines?

  November 30, 2006

• Hooray for Hollywood

  Even with a housing bust and bad court verdicts, the show goes on.

  November 16, 2006

• Condo Siege

  From peaceful American dreaming comes a rude awakening

  May 26, 2005

• Curious George Sails the River of Red

  Following a long tradition, new Fort Lauderdale City Manager George Gretsas tries to tame the big spenders at City Hall

  April 7, 2005

• The Big Lie

  Is the North Broward Hospital District playing a shell game with tax dollars?

  August 26, 2004

• The Hypocritic Oath

  Weston only the start of hospital district chicanery

  April 29, 2004

• Annexation Vexation

  The plan to bring Broward County's poor areas into the fold is full of holes

  August 23, 2001

• No More Taxes on (Almost) All Things Fancy

  Photo courtesy Tom Fancy StudiosIf that looks like your shopping list then, well, thank you, good sir, for generous contributions to the State of Florida, but you probably should have waited till after the legislative session. A bill recently passed by the House Finance and Tax Council would remove sales taxes on yachts and private jets but add it to magazine subscriptions.Should that bill become law, then you can buy this "giga-yacht" and save $30 million in taxes. Hey, that's enough for anothe

  April 21, 2009

• Cigarette Smokers Burned By New Tax; Cigar Aficionados Blow Celebratory Rings

  flickr.com While cigarette smokers will now pay a dollar per pack more, the legislature gave the cigar industry a break. A new state-wide dollar-per-pack tax on cigarettes and smokeless and pipe tobacco starts today. The stated goal from the legislature is to encourage smokers to stop. If not for their own health, for the health of bank account. T he tax will also raise an estimated $950 million for health care, according to Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, sponsor of the bill. C

  July 1, 2009

• Plantation Accountant, Firm Barred From Filing Taxes for Clients

  In a deal that will have to come with a career change, Carole Exantus of Plantation accepted a permanent injunction against filing tax returns on clients' behalf in order to settle a case with U.S. Justice Department attorneys who had sued her for fraud. From the release:The court found that [Exantus'] J's Corporation repeatedly prepared federal income tax returns claiming false tax credits and deductions that it knew would result in understating customers' tax liabilities. Exantus agreed to the

  July 20, 2009

• UBS Case: Who's Public Enemy No. 1?

  Flickr User: dr_zeno​A settlement between federal prosecutors and UBS, accused of helping America's wealthy cheat Uncle Sam out of his taxes, appears likely to be struck tomorrow in Miami's federal court. The deal -- brokered through intense negotiations by diplomats -- is not likely to produce the names of the approximately 52,000 misers who investigators say held secret accounts with the bank. Nor will the bank be fined. In February, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle a related case in

  August 6, 2009

• Crooked Courthouse

  August 13, 2009

• Palm Beach Rebs Threaten Secession

  Rebellion, Palm Beach-style​Nothing secedes like excess. We here at the Juice thinks it makes  sense: Palm Beach town councilman William Diamond urged his fellow confederates at yesterday's council meeting to consider seceding from Palm Beach County and forming a  new county of its very own. Diamond argued that the playground of the rich and famous was paying out something like $51 million a year in property taxes. And for what? A few paltry public parks? And those full of little bro

  August 12, 2009

• Bueller? Pines Leaders Fumble Tax Calculations

  Flickr user: HeneghanCan you calculate your tax hike?​Pack City Hall with more than 150 angry citizens and any governing body would get a bit anxious. But at Wednesday night's budget hearing, the Pembroke Pines city commissioners appeared to be auditioning for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? And it wasn't going well.First, they faced the small problem of calculating exactly how a proposed tax hike would impact homeowners in the Broward suburb. Granted, your average citizen can't be expected

  September 10, 2009

• Is Greyhound Racing Doomed in Florida?

  C. Stiles In the past two weeks, two greyhound racing tracks have announced that they are either ending live racing or shutting down completely: one in Arizona and one in Texas. Both tracks had been in operation for more than 50 years. With every track closing, opponents of racing look again to Florida, the heart of that industry in this country. And in Florida, groups like Grey2KUSA want

  October 8, 2009

• Palm Beach Billionaire Koch Likes Tax Subsidies, Too

  Flickr user: andjohan​One of Palm Beach billionaire Bill Koch's main objections to a proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound -- which he has spent millions of dollars fighting -- is that it will require tax breaks to succeed. As the Juice reported earlier today, Koch has claimed that the annual $100 million in tax subsidies will be passed on to customers in the form of higher electric bills.This is a delightful bit of math for a couple of reasons. First, because the coal industry -- whi

  October 9, 2009

• Boynton's Own Ghost Tower: An Empty Promenade

  Lisa Rab The Promenade is begging for residents.​Boynton Beach is now giving Sunrise a run for its money in the competition for ghostly condo buildings. These 14-story cream-colored towers perched on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway are part of a project known as Promenade, where just four years ago buyers camped out overnight to snatch units priced from $200,000 to $500,000.Promenade was supposed to help revive downtown Boynton, and the developers negotiated a a deal to receive nearly ha

  October 22, 2009

• Searching for Democrats to Run Corruption County

  Any Dems want to run against Steven Abrams?​After watching three Republicans on the Palm Beach County Commission head to prison on corruption charges, one might imagine local Democratic operatives corking champagne bottles in anticipation of next year's battle to fill the seat held by Republican Commissioner Steven Abrams.But politics in Corruption County are never that simple. Indeed, the Dems have yet to find anyone to run against Abrams. "Of all the races we're scoping out, it's probably th

  November 3, 2009