August 30, 2006

No Surprise

No surprise: The Tennessean editorial page comes out against the proposed charter change for the city of Nashville which would give Nashville voters the power to approve or reject future property tax increases. It makes a weak argument:

Members of the Metro Council are privy to considerable discussion and documentation about the cost of services in Nashville and the estimates of the city's revenue streams. Only after that information is digested and the options weighed can council members make informed decisions about tax rates.

The proposed amendment asks voters to make the final call on a property tax hike, despite the fact that most voters do not have detailed information on the Metro budget and do not have the responsibility to provide services.

What The Tennessean is saying, really, is that Metro Council - not the people who earned the money - should have first rights to that money. Says the paper's editorial,

The Metro officials who are responsible for making the city run should also be responsible for setting the tax rate.

The paper and the opponents of the proposed charter change may one day make a strong argument against the proposal, but neither telling the people of Nashville they aren't smart enough to read a budget, nor telling them that it's the government's money first, is that argument.

Update: The unspoken beliefs that underlie the Tennessean's editorial is the belief that, A) tax rate increases are always necessary if Metro Council sifts the numbers and comes to that conclusion, and, B) voters will automatically reject all proposed tax increases. Part A is laughably silly, and I previously showed the paper (here, May 23) why part B, the belief that voters will reject all future proposed tax increases, is wrong, based on the largest long-term living-laboratory study of voters who have been given the power to approve or reject tax increases. That decade-long study, involving hundreds of local-level public referenda on tax increases, shows that voters - once given the budgetary and fiscal information and the reasons for the proposed tax increase - will vote in favor of higher taxes more than half the time.

Voters will vote for higher taxes, if the government elites who want the tax increase are willing to trust voters with the information they need, and to make a case for the higher taxes and higher government spending.