November 18, 2002

What Dreck

Warren Neel, Gov. Don Sundquist's chief income tax cheerleader, copes with rejection in an appallingly bad piece of writing for the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. Neel is Sundquist's Commissioner of Finance & Administration.

Here's a little piece of it:

Maybe there are no answers, but sometimes a parallel to one experience offers understanding of another. As horns honked outside the Capitol, as the talk shows clamored for market share and writers of little note twisted every message, I recalled the epic research by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross that outlines five stages a person moves through as the end of life approaches. I found it informative as I reflected on the state and the tax debate that has consumed the political arena for almost four years.

The first stage is denial and isolation. An individual, when told of a terminal illness, reacts: This cannot be true. Not me. Your test and diagnosis are wrong. Similarly, some suggest the financial problems of Tennessee just don't exist. This cannot be happening, particularly now, they say. We don't have a problem. And if we do, it is a slight problem caused by overspending and the economy.

... and this from the equally pathetic ending:

We have struggled through the five stages and now embark on a new political life in Tennessee. We are not sure where we are going because we arrived at this moment through rejection of a cure, not acceptance of a new life. And in so doing, we are faced with the prospect of being seduced by the rhetoric that promises to hold us firmly in the grasp of the past century, not the century our children face.

Yeah, whatever. Mr. Neel, here's what really happened: The state of Tennessee under Gov. Sundquist's leadership increased spending faster than the state constitution allows, by massively misusing a loophole intended for emergencies. This outstripped the revenue growth produced by the tax code - and yes, there was actual revenue growth. Instead of cutting spending, the governor proposed to increase spending - and demanded an unconstitutional income tax to pay for it.

Most of the major media repeated the administration's lies about the budget and revenue, and didn't challenge the revenue forecasts and the spin that came out of your office. But a few challenged the Official Version. I did. Most ignored it when you used selective data to make the revenue problem look worse than it was. Remember the time you said to focus on sales taxes from vehicle sales because they were down, but a few months later you said to ignore them because they were up? Nice try. Most of the media fell for it. I didn't. And remember the time you used a temporary dip in franchise and excise tax revenue - caused by a change in when corporations pay the tax - to make it look as if a giant new deficit hole had appeared? Once again, the media bought it and reported your press release almost verbatim. I didn't. And I was proven right, as those two press releases I wrote for the Tennessee Institute for Public Policy show.

Most of the media didn't bother digging into old revenue data, past budgets, or past editions of the state's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports , to fact-check the administration's claims of a crisis. Some did. I did. I had worked in the state Legislature a long time ago, and I knew where to find the data and the truth.

Turns out, the administration was propagating a lie, and your office was helping.

A few courageous papers were willing to challenge the Official Version of the story. A little paper called In Review published my work right up until the founder ran out of money. The Nashville City Paper picked up the slack, publishing my fact-laden columns for more than a year, before canceling my column after I complained about not being paid on time. Today, the City Paper is just another liberal press release-regurgitator, but a year ago it had a backbone.

The end of my City Paper column was really just the beginning of better things. This web site, along with TaxFreeTennessee.com and TNTaxRevolt.org, increasingly used the Internet to challenge the Official Version with great effectiveness. A few courageous legislators stood up and said, loudly, that the Official Version was a lie, and that our constitution matters, and it does not give the legislature the authority to enact an income tax (so said three state Supreme Court rulings). And talk radio helped spread the facts that undermined your spin. The people, empowered by knowledge, rejected the lie. And that bugs you. Because the people - who are sovereign in our system - do not want the Bigger Government you were trying to force-sell them.

That's what happened. The people aren't in denial, Mr. Neel. They're in control. And you're soon to be out of a job. It's nice how life works things out for the best.

Neel, incidentally, is an economist. I found a poem dedicated to government economists like him. Here it is.