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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Florida’s incoming Republican legislative leaders gave the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention a glimpse into the future.

Local governments aren’t likely to like what they saw.

House Speaker Designate Ray Sansom of Destin said further tax cuts will be atop his agenda when the Legislature convenes in March.

That in spite of protests from local governments and school districts maintaining the last round of property tax reform has put them in an economic bind.

“History shows, when the economy is tough, you reduce taxes,” Sansom said.

Falling property values and dropping revenues from impact fees, attributable to Florida’s housing slump, have conspired to slash income of local governments.

Higher unemployment, high gasoline prices and the resultant drop in tourism could cut into sales taxes receipts, hurting state government coffers.

But Sansom said the answer is not increasing tax rates.

“There will be a lot of people talking about raising taxes. We will resist that,” Sansom said. “We’re going to be committed to Republican principles of reducing taxes.”

He promised, without specifics, to eliminate bureaucracy and redundancies in government as one way to meet the revenue challenges.

He doesn’t buy the argument that local governments and school districts have been deeply affected by the cuts, saying that school spending has only been reduced 2 percent in the past year, after roughly doubling in the six years prior to that.

“I don’t see why school districts need to raise their millage rate. Government shouldn’t expand itself when business is having to cut back,” Sansom said.

State Sen. Mike Haridopolos of Melbourne said, “There’s a difference between what you want and what you can afford. We look at our own (personal) budgets. We tighten our belts.”

With the outgoing leaders of the state House and Senate beside him and the men who will replace them next year — providing Republicans retain control of the Legislature — State Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer reminded reporters that they were the ones responsible for moving Florida’s primary date from March to January in order to give the state more clout in the selection of the party’s presidential nominee.

The move violated party rules and resulted in Florida only getting half as many delegate votes at the convention. But as it turned out, John McCain won in Florida and went on to win the nomination by such a wide margin the loss of votes didn’t matter. “Florida was relevant. These people played a major role in seeing Florida was heard.”

■ ■ ■

People from every corner of the country end up in Southwest Florida.

As it turns out, people from Southwest Florida end up in every corner of the country as well.

Glenn Clary, the state treasurer of the Republican Party in Alaska, lived in Lee County before moving away 30 years ago.

Clary was the youth pastor at Temple Baptist Church in North Fort Myers. Then he got a job as an associate pastor of Anchorage Baptist Temple. “I was loving Florida but the Lord just moves you. I fell in love with Alaska,” Clary said.

As a party insider in the home state of vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin, Clary offered some insights. The first is that she’s not a party insider. She was not part of the Republican establishment prior to taking on and defeating incumbent Republican governor Frank Murkowski in 2006.

The party did support her, Clary said.

His assessment of Palin: “I think she’s going to make a very good vice presidential candidate. She’s an excellent campaigner. She knows who she is and what she believes.”

Palin is being portrayed by Republicans as a reformer. Clary said she lives up to that billing in Alaska. “She’s not the status quo.”