May 13, 2004

Cowards

NASHVILLE - The House passed House Bill 3400 yesterday on a vote of 98-0 with one representative present but not voting. The bill would extend the reporting deadline for the Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission to December 31, moving it past the August primary and November general election. The Tax Structure Study Commission is widely if not universally expected to recommend creation of a state income tax.

The bill next goes before the state Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee, where it is on the agenda for the May 17 meeting.

The bill is a transparent attempt to shield legislators from having to deal with the Income Tax Issue during the 2004 campaign. What is not clear is why the Republicans in the state House all voted for the bill.

After all, it is the Tennessee Democratic Party that has endorsed the income tax, and it is the Tennessee Democratic Party whose leaders, including House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, pushed for creation of the income tax.

The Tennessee Republican Party, on the other hand, is on record as opposed to the creation of a state income tax - a position that helped the party oust some pro-income tax Democrats in the last election.

It is to the Republicans' advantage to have the Tax Structure Study Commission report come out in July, as currently scheduled. And it would have been to the Republicans' advantage to have any attempt to delay release of the report until after election day be a Democratic attempt. Sure, the Democrats have the votes in the legislature to pass legislation to delay the reports. So, the Republicans should have let them do it, alone. They should have let Democrats be solely responsible for this naked attempt to keep voters from evaluating candidates based on the Income Tax Issue. By voting for the delay, the Republicans took a bullet out of their own gun.

Senate Republicans in the Finance committee and in the full Senate should vote against the Senate version of the legislation, Senate Bill 3326. And Republicans running against House and Senate members of either party who voted for this travesty should beat them over the head with it during the campaign.