August 23, 2002

Singing Soprano

The Tennessean wants you to think Jimmy Naifeh can't lose so it runs this story about his massive campaign war chest.

But Naifeh lets slip in the story that the income tax is dead for two years, hardly the long time he indicated previously. So now you can bet Naifeh will try to bring the income tax back in 2005 if Phil Bredesen is elected governor. After all, Bredesen says he doesn't think the income tax is "the right answer" now, but has left the door wide open to changing his mind. And he's never said he'd veto one if it passes the House and Senate.

The Tennessean says Naifeh plans to give generously from his prodigious political slush fund of nearly half a million dollars to help Democrat incumbents and pro-income tax Republicans get re-elected, no doubt in return for their promise to re-elect him as Speaker of the House so he can lay the groundwork for pushing the income tax again two years from now. It's a good bet he won't be helping Rep. Frank Buck get re-elected.

August 13, 2002

Links to More Info on Colorado Plan

I've put together a list of links to assorted other information and commentary about Colorado's Taxpayers Bill of Rights, including media commentary, academic research, and my own commentary...

Media Commentary - Click here for media praise for Colorado plan. Also, here is a link to a very recent Wall Street Journal commentary on the Colorado plan. If you don't have a paid subscription to WSJ's web site, I've put the text of the editorial online here.

Also see:
Triggering tax rebates
By Michael New, research assistant and data analyst with the Center for Representative Government at the Cato Institute. Source: Washington Times, April 2, 2002.

Academic research into TABOR:
The TABOR Amendment: Learning To Live Within Colorado's Tax & Spending Limits
By Dr. Barry Poulson, professor of economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Senior Fellow with the Independence Institute, and a member of the Colorado Commission on Taxation. Also available as a PDF file. Nov. 2001.

Limiting Government through Direct Democracy: The Case of State Tax and Expenditure Limitations
By Michael New, research assistant and data analyst with the Center for Representative Government at the Cato Institute. The full Cato study on the effectiveness of tax and expenditure limitations on state spending growth. Source: Cato Institute, December 2001. Click for the Executive Summary.

We still need fiscal discipline
By Dr. Barry Poulson, professor of economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Senior Fellow with the Independence Institute, and a member of the Colorado Commission on Taxation. Source: June 23, 2002, Denver Post.

This poll by a Colorado political polling firm last summer found strong support among Coloradoans for the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Source: Ciruli Associates

My other commentary on the Colorado plan:
Busting the Cap
My recent commentary showing how Tennessee's current cap on the growth of government spending has utterly failed to restrain spending, and why Tennessee needs a Taxpayers Bill of Rights.

For more on the Colorado Taxpayers' Bill of Rights please read two columns of mine published last year and one published last March in the Nashville City Paper.

Finding Common Ground on Taxes - August 23, 2001
Tennessee Should Consider Taxpayers' Bill of Rights - August 30, 2001
Spending Cuts Now May Lessen Future Deficits - March 21, 2002

Trip Notes

I forgot to mention one little event from my recent trip to the Northeast. While waiting to board my return flight in Baltimore, I watched as the security screeners selected for extra screening a toddler - a little blond-headed very caucasian girl, no older than 3, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. She had no clue why she was being made to stand on the little rubber pad, hold her arms out and be scanned with the wand. A few days earlier, as I arrived in Baltimore, I saw the security screeners select a very elderly wheelchair-bound lady for extra screening at the gate. All 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were young Muslim men, not toddlers and grannies.

August 12, 2002

Sales Tax Beats Income Tax for Revenue Growth

You have been told that an income tax would be a more stable source of revenue for the state than a sales tax, because it is more "elastic" and less susceptible to economic slumps. But in the second quarter of this year - April, May and June - Tennessee raked more sales tax revenue than it did a year ago. Meanwhile, according to this Reuters report, 36 states that rely on a personal income tax saw revenues fall in the last fiscal year

According to Reuters: Total personal income tax collections for the 36 states fell by 23 percent in the second quarter from the year-earlier period, according to a new survey of the 36 states that provided the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government with data.

But here's the kicker: the same report found that states' sales tax revenues rose an average of 1.2 percent during the quarter compared to April-June 2001.

In Tennessee, revenue from the sales tax totaled $1.0714 billion during the quarter, up 0.23 percent comapred to the same months in 2001.

If Gov. Don Sundquist had managed to put an income tax in place two years during the special legislative session in the fall of 2001, one thing is clear: Tennessee's budget gap in the just-ended fiscal year would very likely have been much larger than it was. Tennessee's sales tax didn't cause that shortfall - overspending did. But Tennessee's continued reliance on the sales tax clearly protected the state from a much larger budget gap. And, without a doubt, the horn-honkers, anti-tax activists, anti-tax legislators and talk radio hosts who successfully fought the income tax saved Tennessee from a much-worse budget crisis.

August 7, 2002

Watch Out For The Grannies

Flew from Nashville to Baltimore on Southwest. Exiting the plane in Baltimore, saw the security people informing a little old lady in a wheel chair that she'd been singled out for extra specially special extra screening. A little old white-haired extremely caucasian lady in a wheelchair. All of the Sept. 11 hijackers were young Muslim males.