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« Conventional Wisdom | Main | An Internet Politics Teach In » November 21, 2004Tennessean Weighs In on Taxpayers Bill of RightsThe Tennessean weighs in on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept with a page-one story saying it would do little to slow the growth of government. I'll be writing a longer analysis of the article later, but on a first quick read-thru, one thing jumped out at me: State Comptroller John Morgan, who works for a Democrat-controlled General Assembly, said he still has reservations. Tennessee is a low-tax state that does not need to restrict the growth of government in the state constitution, Morgan said.Morgan doesn't know what he's talking about. The state constitutional already restricts the growth of government spending to the rate of economic growth. Unfortunately, the cap has a loophole that the legislature has used 12 times in the last 20 years, including last year. The Tennessean mentions that the legislature has busted the cap 12 times in 20 years, but fails to inform readers just how much the legislature's actions have cost them. The truth is, the legislature has voted repeatedly, at the request of governors McWherter, Alexander, Sundquist and even the supposedly fiscally conservative Phil Bredesen to exceed the spending cap, by more than $1 billion. If the legislature had lived within the constitutional limit, the $1 billion tax increase two years ago would have been unnecessary. A couple other thoughts: First, the story is based on numbers and analysis from the University of Tennessee Center for Business and Research, an organzation that is pro-income tax, pro-bigger government budgets, and whose head economist, Dr. Bill Fox, has been caught skewing the data to support that political agenda. (Specifically, I exposed him a few years ago for selectively using or ignoring sales tax data for specific categories of merchandise in order to prop up the pro-income tax argument.) Second: It is very interesting that The Tennessean - after virtually ignoring the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept for two years - decided to write such a big story about it. It is even more interesting that the paper decided to attack the proposal as being unlikely to slow the growth of government, rather than presenting it as a draconian threat that would starve old people and kick sick kids off of TennCare and gut the education budget. If the paper believes the policy would do little to slow the growth of government, surely it won't bother to editorialize against it in the future. Third: That the paper even did the story, and put it on the front page of the Sunday paper, tells you that the Taxpayers Bill of Rights has arrived as a potent political idea. You can read all my past writings about the Taxpayers Bill of Rights by clicking here for my Taxpayers Bill of Rights archive, and also by clicking here to read a white paper I wrote on the topic two years ago. Comments
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