Jacksonville mayoral candidate Bill Bishop answered callers’ questions on WJCT’s "First Coast Connect" this morning. Bishop reiterated his support for raising sales taxes.
He also voiced a position on gay marriage that’s troubling for some of his most socially liberal supporters.
Republican City Councilman Bill Bishop has managed to win some liberal support by being the only candidate to openly support expanding the city’s human rights ordinance to protect gay and transgender people. On Wednesday’s show, though, he veered toward a more conservative stance by saying he doesn’t believe gay people should be allowed to marry as a matter of "cultural and religious history." On the issue of taxes, Bishop repeated his support for sales tax instead of a property tax, as one caller suggested.
"What people forget is that everybody pays property tax whether you own property or not. If you rent, you pay property tax," Bishop said.
"Property owners don’t pay it out of the goodness of their heart. It’s a business expense that gets buried in the cost."
Listen to the podcast to hear the entire interview with Bill Bishop on "First Coast Connect." On Thursday morning, unaffiliated mayoral candidate Omega Allen joins the show.
