March 23, 2004

You Can't Follow Two Parades at Once

As nine of Tennessee's state senators meet today as the Senate Judiciary Committee (at 3:30 p.m. at Legislative Plaza ) to consider a proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights to restrain the growth of state taxes and government spending, they might be wise to consider the results of a poll in Kansas to measure public support for a similar proposal there. From the Lawrence Journal-World comes this report:

Nearly three of four registered voters in Kansas support a proposed constitutional amendment that would require voter approval on all state tax increases, according to supporters of the amendment. The group, the Kansas Taxpayer Bill of Rights Coalition, commissioned a poll of 400 registered voters conducted March 17-18 by Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates.

The poll found 73 percent of Kansans favor the proposed amendment. Sixty-six percent of voters support it even after they are presented with arguments that such a measure could make it too difficult for the state to fund education and health care.

I suspect you'd get the same result here in Tennessee.

One other thing struck me. Kansas has a coalition working for passage of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. Tennessee instead has several groups working independently, duplicating efforts and wasting precious resources.

I praise the work of Tennessee Tax Revolt, the Oak Ridge Accountability Project, and other little local organizations around the state. But we may be blowing it by having too many organizations working on this issue, each doing their own thing. The other side - the people who want to slap an income tax on top the sales tax and sell it on with a promise to reduce the sales tax, but no promise not to raise both taxes later - has formed one organization to push their agenda. Tennesseans for Fair Taxation push that agenda with lies and deception, with arguments based on biased polls and falsely analyzed data, but they push it well - and with a single voice. They are indeed a coalition - a coalition of more than two dozen of the most leftist, socialist, organizations in Tennessee. It's a well-funded coalition of the greedy, a coalition that works with single-minded focus toward enlarging state government government at your expense without limits - and would prefer you not have the kind of real say in the matter that the Taxpayers Bill of Rights would give you.

Two years ago this July, I wrote an essay, We Won, Now What?, which urged opponents of the income tax to take their victory in defeating the tax and seal that victory with a positive, forward-moving agenda of proposing and passing a Taxpayers Bill of Rights similar to the measure that has worked so well in Colorado.

Had Tennessee already had a strong Taxpayers Bill of Rights, the last three years of anguish over the income tax would never have happened. Don Sundquist, Jimmy Naifeh, Bob Rochelle and the rest of Team Income Tax would have had to ask the people to support their plan, rather than merely try to ram it through the legislature by deliberately spending Tennessee into a fiscal crisis. It's time for a well-coordinated, well-funded effort to build support and establish a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights in the Tennessee constitution.

Months later, a group of people gathered in Crossville and began a push for a Taxpayers Bill of Rights, but even then it was clear the message would be muddled by too many policy entrepreneurs pushing too many versions of the proposal.

The first result of that muddle: the defeat of an overly complex mishmash of proposals in Oak Ridge, a mishmash that encompassed far more than the simple three-part Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept of Restrain, Return, Require: Restrain spending growth to the rate of inflation+population, return surplus revenue to taxpayers, and require a public vote on any increase in tax rates, new taxes, spending instead of returning surplus revenue, or increases in the public debt.

And so I wrote again, urging a unified approach and a unified message.

Momentum from last year's defeat of the income tax - and subsequent defeat or retirement of several pro-income tax legislators, replaced by anti-tax conservatives - has been squandered, and a chance to enact a workable tax-and-spending limitation or at least put it on the ballot for voters to approve or reject, has been wasted. That's sad, because the political climate is right for it. After four years of being harangued for higher taxes and told it was their fault the government could not afford its spending binge, Tennessee elected a new governor who has proven that the state can, it turns out, balance its budget without resorting to tax increases or gimmicks, by applying smart fiscal management and spending restraint. The time to codify that approach in the state constitution is now. But the movement is blowing it.

Why? Partly tactics, strategy and political naivete. And partly because some in the movement have a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing mentality - they want the world's toughest tax-and-spending limit and aren't willing to work incrementally and, as Cagle puts it, take what they can get. Rather than get behind a simple Taxpayers Bill of Rights that would be easy to explain to voters, they seek a massive set of reforms to put not only basic caps on taxes and spending into the constitution, but numerous government "accountability" measures that turn the whole thing into a complicated mass that will confuse voters, and give opponents too many targets to shoot at.

...The bad news is, the movement suffered a setback - okay, a massive failure - in Oak Ridge. The good news is, as Cagle mentions, when tax-and-spending limits are put on the ballot, voters general approve them. And the failure in Oak Ridge may turn out for the good - failure is always a better teacher than success. Maybe, now, the movement will see the wisdom of simplicity.

Blake Wylie is right - we need a Tennessee Taxpayers Bill of Rights Coalition and we need it now.

Unfortunately, coalitions aren't built overnight, and I'm writing this only a few hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee may well decide the fate of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights amendment in Tennessee for the next few years. If you want to help, please contact all of the state senators on the committee (list follows) and urge them to pass the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, also known as Senate Joint Resolution 88.

I urge you to call legislators and encourage them to support the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. Below I've listed all nine members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including their phone and fax numbers and email address. They are the most crucial legislators in this debate as of right now. The first four senators - Fowler, Jackson, Kilby and Trail - are considered the swing votes on the committee on this issue.

Senator Doug Jackson-D
District 25 – Dickson - Giles, Hickman, Humphreys, Lawrence, and Lewis counties
Phone: (615) 741-4499 or 1-800-449-8366, x14499
Fax: (615) 741-4324
Email: sen.doug.jackson@legislature.state.tn.us

Senator David Fowler-R
District 11 - Signal Mtn - Part of Hamilton County
Phone: (615) 741-1764 or 1-800-449-8366, x11764
Fax: (615) 253-0280
Email: sen.david.fowler@legislature.state.tn.us

Senator Tommy Kilby-D
District 12 – Campbell - Fentress, Morgan, Rhea, Roane, and Scott Counties
Phone: (615) 741-1449 or 1-800-449-8366, x11449
Fax: (615) 253-0237
Email: sen.tommy.kilby@legislature.state.tn.us

Senator Larry Trail-D
District 16 - Murfreesboro - Bedford, Moore and part of Rutherford Counties
Phone: (615) 741-1066 or 1-800-449-8366, x11066
Fax: (615) 253-0204
Email: sen.larry.trail@legislature.state.tn.us

Senator Steve Cohen-D
District 30 - Memphis - Part of Shelby County
Phone: (615) 741-4108 or 1-800-449-8366, x14108
Fax: (615) 253-0179
Email: sen.stephen.cohen@legislature.state.tn.us

Senator Joe Haynes-D
District 20 - Nashville – Part of Davidson County
Phone: (615) 741-6679 or 1-800-449-8366, x16679
Fax: (615) 741-2533
Email: sen.joe.haynes@legislature.state.in.us

Sen. Curtis S. Person, Jr. - R
District 31 - Germantown and part of Shelby Co.
Phone: (615)741-2419 or 1-800-449-8366, x12419
Fax: (615) 741-7200
Email: sen.curtis.person.jr@legislature.state.tn.us

Sen. Mark Norris - R
District 32 - Dyer, Lauderdale, Tipton, and part of Shelby Co.
Phone: (615)741-1967 or 1-800-449-8366, x11967
Email: sen.mark.norris@legislature.state.tn.us

Sen. Michael R. Williams - R
District 4 - Jefferson, Grainger, Union, Claiborne, Hanckock, and Hawkins Co.
Phone: (615)741-2061 or 1-800-449-8366, x12061
Fax: (615) 253-0286
Email: sen.michael.williams@legislature.state.tn.us