December 10, 2005

Enlightening Mount Juliet

Interesting story in The Tennessean today about a push in the Nashville suburb of Mount Juliet to adopt a new "home rule" city charter. A big subtext of the story is that converting to "home rule" could also involve giving residents of the fast-growing suburb the right to referendums on future tax increase. MJ residents do not currently pay a city property tax.

[City Commissioner Jim] Bradshaw said he would caution Mt. Juliet about amending any city charter under home rule and turning over power on taxes to residents. "If every tax increase had to be voted on in a referendum, it would be extremely cumbersome," he said. "That can really restrict the city in ways they can't even imagine."

Voters said "yes" to higher taxes, spending and government debt more than half of the time. According to the Colorado Municipal League, voters approved 198 of 293 ballot questions to increase government debt, and rejected only 95 - a 68 percent approval rate. They approved 420 of 479 ballot questions to allow the government to retain and spend surplus revenue (the size of the surplus is determined by a formula in state law) and rejected only 59 such requests - an 88 percent approval rate. And voters approved 248 of 459 ballot questions to allow tax increases or new taxes, and rejected 211 - a 54 percent approval rate.

Far from hamstringing government, it has been good for both fiscal restraint and public discourse. As the Rocky Mountain News editorialized on Nov. 7, 1999:

Shifting responsibility for taxes from politicians to the public hasn't resulted in automatic rejection of every spending plan. But while TABOR hasn't straitjacketed government, it has accomplished a number of good things. It has heightened interest in elections and government policy; it has given public officials mandates they otherwise would have lacked; it has shrunk voters' sense of helplessness over the use of their hard-earned taxes; and last, but hardly least, it has strengthened the fiscal responsibility of state and local government."

UPDATE: Nathan Moore at Moore Thoughts comments, "It's painful to hear an elected representative tell the people who elected him that they are not smart enough to manage their own city's finances. If the people cannot be trusted to vote on taxation, the issue closest to all of us when dealing with our governments, then they certainly cannot be trusted to elect representatives to do the same task."