BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
As I reported here yesterday, the Tennessee branch of the National Federation of Independent Business has endorsed the proposed Tennessee constitutional amendment called the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. The NFIB/Tennessee issued a press release announcing its endorsement of TABOR, along with a helpful TABOR summary, on Wednesday, January 5. It has not been mentioned in any major Tennessee newspaper, even though the NFIB/Tennessee is the state's largest business association and its thousands of small-business members overwhelmingly expressed support for the proposed amendment.
The media has now had two days to report this important endorsement of the TABOR proposal, but has ignored it.
Why?
UPDATE: The Nashville Business Journal mentioned the NFIB endorsement of the proposed TABOR amendment in its Jan. 7-13 edition, which came out today. NBJ doesn't put its new content online until Monday. I'll link to the story then, but if you want to see it in the dead-tree version, it's included in a legislative roundup story titled "Stating Their Case," by J. Holly Dolloff.
I'm from Colorado; TABOR is great for the most part. There are two problems that we had.
1. When people saw how much was given back to the tax payer, they got the state to put in the constitution a 1.6% increase in school spending every year.
2. When the economy goes down and you have to cut areas, it's very hard to get these areas back up to where they were plus inflation.
In 2002 the increase in school spending forced a decrease in spending where it was needed. Now that the money is coming in, they cant increase the areas that were decrease to where they would have been if they did not cut them.
I say go TABOR!
Thats why you will hear little to nothing on TABOR from the Western side of the State. Their opinions are clear.
Taxpayer Bill of Rights just shortsighted hype
December 8, 2004 455 words ID: jkt13568599
An effort by state Senate Republicans to push through a constitutional amendment known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights is ill-advised and short-sighted. If passed, the amendment only would hurt the state by limiting tax options at a time when every option for generating new revenue should be on the table and open for serious discussion. The TABOR amendment has two main components. The first would put a constitutional cap on tax collections and return any surplus to taxpayers after a rainy day
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As I reported here 