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« Ford Quits | Main | Our Well-Paid Legislators » May 28, 2005Busting the Cap 2
Meanwhile, I have written a three-page history of the death of Tennessee's first-in-the-nation constitutional cap on spending, titled Spending Spree: The Bipartisan Assault That is Killing Tennessee's Constitutional Cap on the Growth of the State Budget, which I am making available here in a draft version. If you so desire, please read through the document and offer any questions, challenges, suggestions for improvements, finding of math or other factual errors, etc. If you make changes to the document, please make them in a different typestyle and mark them in bold, and email me your edited version to bill Thank you. Comments
Bill: You have a tremendous grasp of the economic issues facing Tennessee. Your voice is needed and I hope when you finish this piece you will aggressively market it, and others will help circulate. As you are well aware for any issue to reach the tipping point, it requires sustained and/or massive media attention, resulting in significant public outrage. Unfortunately, the real leadership demanding that government hold the line on spending has been outside of the statehouse. It is not as if the elected leaders could not garner a mental grasp that taxpayers really meant what they said in 1978 that they wanted protection to prevent the rapid increases in government spending. Tennessee needs to develop a consensus on a limited set of “core businesses” for state government that promotes our shared purposes and reflect our shared values, not just those of special interest. I still believe there is a need to streamline state government making it leaner, more efficient, and more accountable to taxpayers. I hope they heed your words of wisdom and take a hard look at your warning to secure a better future for all Tennesseans. If not, the drum beats for that state income tax will soon be starting. I don’t see any Republicans poised to take Bredesen on at this point. So get this piece out there quickly! --JC Posted by: JC Bowman at May 29, 2005 1:43 AMPost a comment
Comments Policy: Your comment is subject to deletion if it is off-topic or includes foul language or personal attack. Readers, please email me if you find comments that include egregious violations of this policy. Comments may not post immediately - do not post twice!
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On Friday I posted an entry titled "Busting the Cap," about how the Tennessee legislature stands ready to once again exceed the state constitution's cap on the growth of state spending. At this time, it appears they won't do so, though legislation has been filed and has moved through the committee process in both houses of the General Assembly should legislators decide it is necessary to pass the enabling legislation needed to exceed the cap. Such legislation has become routine over the past two decades, as the legislature and governors of both parties have turned a provision meant for fiscal emergencies into a routine method for growing state spending faster than the state's economy is growing. You can read that post 