March 3, 2004

Good TaBOR Coverage from WKRN

I sent an email to WKRN Channel 2 asking them to post the video of reporter Chris Bundgaard's story on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights town hall meeting, which aired on the 6 p.m. Tuesday newscast, on their website, and they responded. You can now see the story - a much more balanced approach than the biased report from WSMV - by clicking this link. The story lead the newscast, and, following Bundgaard's report, anchor Anne Holt briefly outlined three criticisms offered by Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, a pro-income tax group that opposes TaBOR.

TFT claims TaBOR:
1. Would take away power from the people we elected to govern,
2. Incorporates a revenue formula that "makes things worse" during an econommic downturn
3. Lead to Colorado having the "ninth worst deficit" among all states last year.

I'll address each of those briefly.

1. Yes, it does. Because legislators have proven to be irresonsible with the power to tax and spend, having broken Tennessee's existing but weak constitutional cap on spending growth by more than $3 billion in excess spending since 1983. In fact, had the legislature restrained spending to within the state constitution's current cap, called the "Copeland Cap," it would have increased spending at just 5.5 percent rather than 7.3 percent annual on average since 1983, and taxpayers would have had to shell out $3.7 billion less in taxes over that period.

TaBOR will move the decision-making over taxes closer to the people who, in our sytem, are the ultimate source of governmental authority.

2. No it doesn't. The TaBOR proposed by Tennessee state Sen. Jim Bryson improves upon the Colorado amendment that inspired it, and doesn't have the flaw the critics cite.

3. No it didn't. That claim is based on incomplete information about Colorado's deficit. The state had the ninth largest deficit last year, close to $1 billion, primarily because of a decision legislators made two years ago to delay for a year paying a constutionally mandated rebate to taxpayers of more than $900 million. That put a $900 million IOU in the next year's budget. Most of the "ninth worst deficit" in the nation was the direct result of that decision - it was not caused by the Taxpayers Bill of Rights.

I've written extensively on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept, which you can find archived here. And here is a look at Colorado's situation, specifically.