August 3, 2005

He Hasn't Said No

An anti-tax group, flanked by five legislators, called Tuesday for Gov. Phil Bredesen and members of the House and Senate to sign an anti-income tax pledge for the upcoming elections in 2006. The Nashville City Paper story notes that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who has steadfastly refused to rule out seeking an income tax if re-elected, called the stunt "pure political posturing" and "nonsense."

The only way to guarantee Bredesen won't seek a state income tax in a second term is to deny him a second term.

UPDATE: This WKRN story contains an interesting nugget:

Nonsense or not, the governor went on to say he'll talk about the income tax issue more when he decides about a second term. But that second term is where the previous three Tennessee governors have either supported or flirted with an income tax.

Four years ago Bredesen left the door to the income tax in a second term, but he knows he can't win re-election if he says he's for the income tax. But if he doesn't shut the door hard now that he's running for re-election, there will be reason to doubt his sincerity. And if he does shut the door hard - if he does issue the "Over my dead body" speech against the income tax, there will still be reason to doubt him. After all, his predecessor ran for a second term promising loudly to that he was against the income tax. Once safely reelected, he proposed one.

If Gov. Bredesen wants to prove that he really thinks Tennessee should not have an income tax now, next year, or ever, he should spend some time in the next legislative session backing one of the proposed constitutional amendments that would explicitly ban the tax. If he doesn't back such an amendment - and especially if he comes out in opposition to such an amendment, then, as I said above: The only way to guarantee Bredesen won't seek a state income tax in a second term is to deny him a second term.

UPDATE: Jay Bush says Bredesen's language in rejecting signing the pledge closely resembles how Van Hilleary, his rival in the 2004 gubernatorial campaign, also refused to sign the pledge during that campaign.

Hilleary's refusal to sign the pledge during the 2002 race underscored his seeming inability to a strong and unwavering early stand opposing the income tax, despite clearly wanting people to believe he was against the tax. I don't know what drove Hilleary's early caution and lack of courage to take an "over my dead body" stand on the income tax. I don't know if he was afraid he couldn't balance the state's budget without an income tax, or if he was afraid taking a stand against it would dry up the campaign contributions from moderate Republicans who had backed Gov. Sundquist's push for the income tax. Whatever the reason, Hilleary let Bredesen - a serial tax raiser and the nominee of a party, the Tennessee Democratic Party, that had an income tax as part of its official platform - get to the right of him on the defining issue of that election year.

Caution cost Hilleary the governor's mansion. Now he's running for the U.S. Senate, and he's thrown caution - and good sense - to the wind, with his proposal to debate Jane Fonda about the war in Iraq.

If I was Ed Bryant, I'd consider countering Hilleary's Fonda silliness by issuing a press release offering to debate Harold Ford Jr.