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« Wheel Tax Bill: Key Senator Withdraws Support | Main | Photos From The Front Line » March 9, 2005Wheel Tax Withdrawal Update
Current law allows county commissions to impose a tax on vehicle registration, or wheel taxes, but provides that, if enough citizens in the county sign a petition, the tax cannot take effect unless approved by voters in a referendum.The bill was sponsored by Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, and Rep. John Hood, D-Murfreesboro, at the request of Fred Congdon, executive director of the Tennessee County Mayors Association, which apparently didn't want to see voters defeat wheel tax increases passed by county commissions. Voters in eight counties have done just that in the last few months. Hood said he might pursue a separate bill that would eliminate wheel taxes by private act but leave the referendum provision intact. Ben Cunningham of the organization Tennessee Tax Revolt, which opposed the original bill, said such a measure would "be fine with me."That would be good legislation as it would make wheel tax increases more difficult to pass, while leaving voters the right to block tax increases via the petition-referendum process. Congdon said he agreed with the withdrawal of the bill "because I don't want these guys subject to all the harassment and threats" from critics of the legislation."Mr. Congdon, I doubt you can document one single instance of true harassment or threat. The people you refer to as "these guys" are elected representatives of the people and my guess is they were hearing from a lot of angry constituents opposed to this legislation. My guess is you hoped to slip this one through the legislature under the media radar to avoid public outcry - and except for the one story apiece in the Knoxville News Sentinel and the Kingsport Times News you almost did. But Tennessee Tax Revolt caught wind of it, and alerted the people's media - talk radio and blogs - and the people found out anyway and called legislators to speak out in opposition to the bill. Is it harassment to call your legislator and tell him you think his legislation is a bad idea, Mr. Congdon? As Tennessee Tax Revolt spokesman Ben Cunningham said to me in an email regarding the KNS story and Congdon's statement in it, "Tennessee Association of County Mayors' lobbyist Fred Congdon, who gets paid with taxpayer money via dues to his association and then lobbies against the taxpayers, is complaining because taxpayers are upset." He said Congdon's statement took "unmitigated gall." Back to the KNS story: Hood said he had not understood the bill fully. Two other legislators who withdrew as sponsors earlier, Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey of Blountville, said Congdon had not explained the measure's impact on referendum rights when they initially agreed to back the bill.So, Mr. Congdon, you also tried to slip the legislation's true intent past the legislators themselves. You tried to play them for fools in order to make it easier to raise taxes and harder for ordinary Tennessee citizens to fight back. I hope they - and all of the legislators - remember that the next time you come to them with some proposed legislation and ask them to sponsor it. You, sir, should be ashamed of yourself. Posted in Tennessee Budget & Tax Policy
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What concerns me about all this is the obvious fact that the sponsoring legislators had not read the bill. And others who claimed they had read it did not understand it. Seems as if the lobbyist understood that would be the case and that he could tell them whatever he wanted and they would go forward without questioning his representations! Apparently, he also felt secure in the silence of the mainstream media! Thanks to the blogosphere, most notably, Bill Hobbs and the Tennessee Tax Revolt folks, this sorry affair was exposed to the public. BTW, I see no mention of the talk radio folks. Were Gill and Valentine involved at all? Foxlets14 While Congdon tried to slip in a fast one, it's not his fault the sponsors didn't read the bill. It's the sponsors responsibility to read the legislation before he puts his name to it. That was not a long piece of legislation and could have been read in less than a minute but being good politicians they took the word of the lobbyist and were caught with their pants down. This incident and others like it need to be cmapaign fodder next election. But sadly it is pandemic of the way government business is conducted from the local school boards all the way to Congress where they suspend the 3 day review rule and schedule votes on legislation composed of several thousand pages which no one could possibly read or understand. The bureaucrats wait with baited breath for some obscure section then strike quickly to take advantage of the unsuspecting public. Then as with all legislation it's impossible to get anything rescinded. "Once a law always a law" especially if it's "for the children". Posted by: Rick at March 9, 2005 11:02 AMPost a comment
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The Knoxville News Sentinel has a good 