February 28, 2005

Wheel Tax Greaser Update

State Rep. Jerome Cochran reports that his efforts to fix a bad piece of legislation that would make it easier for county commissions in Tennessee to raise wheel taxes - and strip the right of citizens to overturn such tax increases with a petition drive and referendum - have failed.

Via email Monday afternoon, Cochran said he "wanted you to know that my amendment to reinstate the petition by citizens and 2/3 vote by county commissions was not agreed to, so Rep. Davis and myself have withdrawn our names from the bill."

During a series of emails exchanged last Friday recounted as blog postings here, Cochran had at first defended the bill, which he said he asked the legislature's legal staff to draft, but later implied he hadn't read the finished product, claiming that once he examined it he found it had been "inadvertently" drafted to delete the current provisions in Tennessee code that allow for the petition drive and referendum.

It is good news that Cochran and Rep. Davis have withdrawn their support for the bill. The bad news, however, has three parts: The legislation Cochran had drafted still has the provisions in it that make it easier for county commissions to raise wheel taxes and harder for Tennesseans to fight back. Three of the four remaining co-sponsors of the legislation are Democrats. And legislation remains alive and rolling in the state House, which is controlled by Democrats.

Rep. Cochran's inadvertent mistake still may end up costing you higher wheel taxes - and less power over your elected county officials - in the years ahead.

HobbsOnline intends to stay on this story - a story the entire state capital press corps has missed or ignored - until it reaches a conclusion.

Can You Blog In Japanese?

If you speak Japanese fluently and you are a good blogger with journalistic skills, there's a lucrative freelance gig available from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, the USC East Asian Studies Center, and the U.S. Department of Education How lucrative? How else can you make $45,000 in six months by blogging? Details here. I'm still hunting the freelance gigs being offered for journalists-turned-bloggers who aced Latin and barely survived a year of Russian...

Ford Jr. Launches Website, No Blog

Harold Ford Jr. has launched his campaign website for his run at the U.S. Senate seat being vacated after next year by Sen. Bill Frist. Adam Groves notes that Ford's standard-issue campaign website doesn't have a blog: "You would think after South Dakota politicans would get it." Incidentally, Groves blogs more comprehensively about Tennessee politics than I do. If you want the best coverage of Tennessee's tax and budget policy wars, HobbsOnline is where you should go - but there's a lot more to Tennessee politics than just the tax and budget stuff and while I'll write about those other things from time to time, Groves writes about pretty much all of them all the time.

Help a Blogger Help The Kids in Moldova

Blake Wylie is still needing to raise some funds for a missionary trip to Moldova. You can donate via his Amazon or PayPal tip jars. I know Blake and am familiar with the excellent church where he is a member and which is organizing the trip. Help him go to Moldova this summer - even if you can chip in just $5.

State Senator Still Working to Make It Easier To Raise Your Taxes

Tennessee state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, may have dropped his support for legislation that would have made it easier for county commissions in Tennessee to increase wheel taxes - and stripped citizens of the petition-and-referendum tool they now have to overturn such tax increases, but he hasn't totally given up on trying to help county commissions raise taxes.

Via Mark Rose's blog, we learn of Senate Bill 1056, whose primary sponsor is Ketron. The legislation would authorize the county legislative body of any county experiencing rapid growth to impose a one fourth of 1 percent transfer tax on the sale of real property in the county. This bill would require such a county to adopt a resolution implementing the tax be passed by 2/3 vote of the county legislative body. The bill is backed by the Tennessee Municipal League, which is basically always looking for ways to make it easier for counties and cities to raise taxes. See page six of this document from the TML's website.

While Sen. Ketron's bill - and the House version, HB608 filed by state Rep. John Hood, D-Murfreesboro - seems to establish a very high hurdle for a county commission to enact such a tax increase, it really doesn't. The requirement that the tax-increase resolution "must contain information and data demonstrating the need for this tax due to the rapid growth and showing insufficient revenue to provide infrastructure improvements" is a rather weak requirement - as any clever county commission can cook up some "data" showing whatever they want it to show, and jigger the books to make it look like a county is broke even if it has plenty of revenue. A county commission wishing to justify such a tax increase could merely temporarily re-budget a large portion of its budget to schools, leaving nothing for "infrastructure improvements," pass the resolution imposing the tax, and then reshuffle the budget again.

Sen. Ketron: You were not elected to represent the Tennessee Municipal League and the interests of the Rutherford County Commission, Sen. Ketron. You were elected to represent the people. And people, Sen. Ketron, elect Republicans to hold the line on taxes, not to provide new ways to raise them.

February 27, 2005

Think Different

Memphis Flyer political commentator Jackson Baker takes a look at the presidential possibilities for Phil Bredesen, the governor of Tennessee.

Some see Tennessee's high-flying governor as a Democratic presidential prospect, others as a crypto-Republican. Whatever he is, he's different.

Baker notes some poll numbers that show Bredesen with a high approval rating, but low marks for his handling of TennCare. The piece seems to imply that it is Bredesen's plans to cut TennCare that is causing those low marks, but I'm not so sure.

Bredesen won the 2002 election by the barest of margins - just 51 percent of the vote - because he was a wealthy former healthcare exec who had promised to bring his healthcare industry experience to bear in fixing the fiscal nightmare called TennCare. His healthcare business experience was what gave him the winning edge over Republican nominee Van Hilleary. Republicans in East Tennessee voted for him because they believed Bredesen could balance the state budget without raising taxes and fix TennCare. He's done the former, so far, but two years into his term, Bredesen hasn't fixed TennCare. He hasn't even come close. His "reform" plan consists of slashing a fourth of beneficiaries from the rolls. If Bredesen has any innovative Big Ideas growing in the soil of his healthcare industry experience, they haven't yet flowered into view.

Perhaps that's because Bredesen's healthcare industry experience came in the managed-care industry, where profits came by charging employers to provide healthcare coverage to their workers and then providing as little healthcare as possible. That's thin soil from which to grow innovative reforms.

Bredesen certainly hasn't come up with anything as innovative as South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, whose "Medicaid Choice" proposal would fundamentally transform the Medicaid system in South Carolina by incorporating greater flexibility, individual control, and personal responsibility.

Could it be that Bredesen's low polling marks on TennCare are because he is failing - big time - at the one thing the people of Tennessee elected him to do? And could it be that, if he doesn't do something innovative to reform and save TennCare soon, his overall approval rating may soon be headed south as well?

Tennessee Tax Revolt Retold

I have finished reading Phil Valentine's new book, Tax Revolt : The Rebellion Against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government, coming out March 8 from Nelson Current, and it is an excellent book. The book tells the history of the Tennessee Revolt that defeated repeated attempts to pass a state income tax a few years ago. It also provides numerous examples of biased and sloppy reporting on behalf of the Tennessee capital hill press corps - print and broadcast, from one TV reporter's false description of horn-honking tax protestors as a "Lexus Brigade" (most were folks of average income and non-luxury, even beat-up cars) to the slanderously false description of one protest as a "riot" (it wasn't - I was there), and - more importantly - the news media's unquestioning trust in and almost complete failure to dig into the budget numbers that they were being handed by the governor's office as it claimed Tennessee faced huge deficits (it didn't) and declining sales tax revenue (sales tax revenue was rising) and there was no fat or waste in the budget (there was).

Valentine, a partisan in the tax revolt, has written a book that provides a view of history that only an insider would know. As a fellow participant in those history-making days, I assure you he got it right.

And it is a story for the ages for the Tennessee Tax Revolt is a story as old as America herself, a story of ordinary citizens rising up against difficult odds to reclaim their government from elites who sought to use it to run roughshod over them - a story whose roots run back through time to the Boston Tea Party, the tax revolt that launched a nation.

Senate Campaign Blogging

Regular readers know I've been urging candidates running for the GOP nomination for the Tennessee U.S. Senate seat that comes open next year as a result of the retirement of Bill Frist to incorporate blogging into their campaign strategy and to make a blog a part of their campaign website and the nexus of a hub of blogs by bloggers who favor that candidate.

So far, none have, but it's early. Meanwhile, I have just run across a new blog, Blogging for Bryant, by two bloggers who support former U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant's candidacy. The bloggers, whose identity is not disclosed, say the blog is not associated with the campaign. They say they intend to make Blogging for Bryant "a clearinghouse for all things related to the 2006 Tennessee Senate race" and promise to "scour the web for all the news and opinion out there on what is shaping up to be one of the most watched Senate races in the nation."

The campaign will be blogged. The only question is, which candidates will be savvy enough to connect with the blogosphere?

In a related story, Memphis Flyer political commentator Jackson Baker is not convinced that U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn really has decided not to run for the Senate seat. He's scrutinized her recent letter that most everyone read as a declaration that she won't run for the Senate and finds that ... that is not exactly what she said.

Interesting.

Hey, Leno

I had to laugh when I saw my Sunday edition of The Tennessean this morning. Above the masthead were two items juxtaposed rather ironically. Read the two story-promos at the very top of the page, in the center and on the right. Here's a PDF of the front page.

A Wired Weekend

Normal blogging will resume Monday. I've spent much of this weekend dealing with all sorts of wires and wireless gizmos. We recently dumped Comcast as our TV and Internet provider and MCI as our phone service and went with Bellsouth, BellSouth DSL and DirecTV. Add to it a new DVD player for the playroom, and a TV that's so old it doesn't accept the standard three-plug RCA jacks, requiring me to install an RF modulator and then properly integrate the DirecTV box, the DVD player, the VCR and the TV - argh.

Then it was on to the home office to unplug the Comcast modem and install and configure the DSL modem - and then add a wi-fi router to it so I can use my new Dell Inspiron 700M laptop anywhere in and around my house. That only required 90 minutes on tech support with a nice lady in India working for Cisco's Linksys division. (In case you're curious, I enabled the security function on my wi-fi network, so you can't surf the 'net on my wi-fi. Some of my neighbors, it seems, haven't done that.)

End result: I've got more shopping channels that I ever knew existed, and I'm blogging unplugged and loving it, and looking forward to warmer weather so I can work or blog on my back patio.

Not bad for a total non-techie.

Ad Space Sale

HobbsOnline averaged 35,000 unique visitors per month over the past year, and traffic so far this year is up by about 30 percent over the same period a year ago. You can reach a large audience for a small amount of money. I'm currently offering ad space on the right-side column for a discounted price of $75 for three months - but you must purchase the space before the end of February. The only ad now running on the right side expires March 4th, so the first advertiser to take advantage of this will lock in the top slot, where their ad is seen by all visitors to this site without scrolling the home page, for three months. The ad will appear in the same position on all interior pages as well. Only three ad slots will be sold at that price. Click here to place an ad.

February 26, 2005

It's Baack.

How ironic. On the same day I got an advance copy of Phil Valentine's new book, Tax Revolt : The Rebellion Against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government, coming out March 8 from Nelson Current, a history of the Tennessee Revolt that defeated repeated attempts to pass a state income tax a few years ago, a liberal state legislator from Memphis has filed legislation that would create ... an income tax.

Blake Wylie has all the details, commentary and links. The good news is House Bill 2027, which would enact a 1 percent payroll tax, appears to have no Senate counterpart and the legislator who filed it, state Rep. Mike Kernell, has virtually no clout in the House even though he's been in the House since 1977.

Still, the mere fact that the legislation was filed illustrates an important truth to those of us who fought in the Tennessee Tax Revolt, and to all Tennesseans who oppose the creation of an income tax and oppose out-of-control taxation and government spending:

The war against the income tax and inexorably higher taxes is not over. We have won some key battles but, as former state Sen. Marsha Blackburn - now a rising star in Congress - once said, "They only have to win once, we have to win every time."

We can win with finality only one way - by forcing our state legislators to pass the following legislation:

1. A constitutional amendment to explicitly bar any form of taxation of income - even though the state constitution already appears to ban an income tax, the Left will not admit it and plays word games to argue an income tax is constitutional.

2. A constitutional amendment called the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, which would require state government to restrain spending growth to a sustainable rate, and require all future tax increases and new taxes be put to a vote of the people in a referendum.

Legislation is pending in the state legislature to put both of those amendments on the ballot. Call your legislators today and urge them to vote for those amendments. Call them tomorrow, fax them the next day, email them the day after that, and don't stop until both pieces of legislation have passed and the amendments are on the ballot. You can find all of their contact info here under the House and Senate links.

By the way, I've read more than half of Valentine's new book, and it is excellent - well-written, heavily researched, and very accurate. You can buy it here.

UPDATE: Blake Wylie has updated his post to note that Kernell also has filed another bill that would create a full-blown state income tax. The bill has no Senate sponsor. Kernell titled his legislation the "Tennessee Investment and Economic Development Act" because "Grandstanding Bill That Has No Chance, Filed By A Joke of a Legislator Who Has Accomplished Little in 28 Years In The House" was too long.

February 25, 2005

Tax Revolt! Now In Book Form

I just received in the mail a copy of Phil Valentine's new book, Tax Revolt : The Rebellion Against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government, coming out March 8 from Nelson Current, an imprint of the publisher Thomas Nelson Inc. The book recounts the history of the Tennessee Tax Revolt a few years back, when ordinary citizens rose up to stop their legislature from imposing an unpopular and unconstitutional state income tax - against the backdrop of various tax revolts throughout American history.

I was proud to play a small role in the Tennessee tax revolt, by writing a series of newspaper columns and blog entries exposing the lies of the administration of then-Gov. Don Sundquist about Tennessee's revenue, tax code and spending patterns. Valentine, a top-shelf radio talk show host here was kind enough to read some of my writings on his ratings-leading radio show, and kinder still to mention me three times in his book.

I've scanned the book and it looks to be excellent - well-researched and heavily footnoted. This book is not just for Tennesseans wishing to relive the revolt, but for any overtaxed American anywhere looking for inspiration - and nuts-and-bolts examples - for launching a rebellion of their own against politicians and bureaucrats for whom no revenue is ever sufficient and there's no existing tax that can't be raised or new tax that shouldn't be imposed.

Phil, you have done the overtaxed American people a service by writing this book. Thank you for mentioning me in it, not just once but thrice, and for including this blog's address in the footnotes. HobbsOnline is officially a part of recorded history now. The nice note you sent will be framed and on display by Monday.

Readers: You can buy the book from Amazon by clicking here.

Wheel Tax Spin

This post regarding legislation that would have made it easier for county commissions in Tennessee to pass wheel-tax increases, has been extensively updated throughout the day. The latest: One of the legislators who co-sponsored the bill admits to authoring it - and still defends it, even though it would also strip citizens of the right to fight wheel tax increases via the petition drive-and-referendum process they have used in the last year to defeat wheel tax increases in nearly a dozen counties.

UPDATE: That legislator, state Rep. Jerome Cochran, has emailed again and says the legislation was mistakenly drafted to remove the 2/3rds provision. See the original post, very bottom, for the text of his email.

The Campaign Will Be Blogged

Memphis Mike files a lengthy report on an appearance by U.S. Senate candidate Ed Bryant. Mike has compliments and criticisms - criticisms that will go unanswered and compliments that will go unamplified by the Bryant campaign because they don't have a blog and haven't yet hired a consultant to help them build a network of "Blogs for Bryant."

Patrick Ruffini's Congressional Blogging: A Guide is a must-read for current congress-critters and for candidates for congressional and senate seats. When Ruffini - he's the guy who ran the Bush campaign's blog - says congresspeople ought to be blogging because it is a way to get their message out unfiltered by the media, and to engage the people directly, it is advice that is applicable to candidates as well. If I was running for city council or the school board I'd have a blog at a simple URL and plaster that web address everywhere.

Blogger: Can You Spare A Dime?

A good blogger need$ your help. And, c'mon, any blogger who can write a Senate race analysis as definitive as this one deserves a $5 or a $10 or whatever you can spare...

Tracking the Conversation

I have just added a new feature to the blog. At the bottom of each post you'll see a link titled "Linked By." Click it and you'll get a listing of every post in the blogosphere that's linked to that specific post, as tracked by Technorati.

Wheel Tax Legislation Gets a Flat

Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt, who alerted me yesterday to legislation pending in the state Senate that would have made it easier for county commissions to raise wheel taxes - and harder for citizens to stop them - emailed this morning to report that Sens. Bill Ketron and Ron Ramsey have withdrawn their support from that legislation.

Good golly miss molly!! We did it!!!! Thank YOU!! Thank YOU!! Thank YOU!!!

>>>>>Thanks to everyone<<<<<<<< for such quick action on the wheel tax bill. All the talk radio, emails and calls and blog postings had an immediate effect. The new media is becoming the new force!!

Several bloggers - not just this one - posted articles about the legislation, including Blake Wylie's NashvilleFiles, Mark Rose, and Michael Silence, who blogs for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Except for Silence's posting, the Tennessee news media either missed or ignored the story.

Blogs first reported the story and blogs and talk radio pushed the story to a swift conclusion, all before Tennessee's slumbering capital hill press corp bothered to wake up and cover it.

Adam Groves is right:

Politicans take note, the blog is here to affect Tennessee politics- today State Senators Ramsey and Kentron removed their support of a wheel tax bill that Bill Hobbs ripped to shreads.

UPDATE: Ketron emailed that he indeed has withdrawn his support, stating, "When the lobbyist asked Senator Ramsey and I to introduce the bill it was presented differently than the bill that was drafted by Legal Services."

I have emailed Sen. Ketron asking him which lobbyist for what organization asked him to sponsor the legislation.

UPDATE: Sen. Steve Cohen, the Democratic chairman of the state Senate's State & Local Government Committee, which is still scheduled to consider the legislation on March 1, emailed a response to my question of whether or not he would support the bill. Cohen wrote: "I have not decided. I will probably oppose it."

On the flip side, state Rep. Jerome Cochran, a Republican from Elizabethton who a co-sponsor of the legislation in the house, showed his ignorance in an email to me by asserting that the legislation "does not make it easier to raise wheel taxes."

The legislation would make it possible for county commissions to pass wheel tax increases by a simple majority; current law requires a two-thirds majority. I'l leave it to you to decide if that makes it easier for county commissions to pass wheel tax increases.

Cochran:

This bill does not make it easier to raise wheel taxes, it simply removes the provision that the General Assembly must approve a wheel tax for a particular county. County Commissions must still approve the wheel tax at 2 regular meetings or put it on the ballot for a vote by referendum. Either way the process stays close to the people and not have local matters decided by legislators in Knoxville or Memphis. The process should be determined by local county officials who are directly responsible to the effected people. I do not believe it appropriate for me to be voting on a wheel tax for Shelby County. I believe that this will make it more difficult to raise taxes because county commissioners will not be able to blame Nashville for tax increases and must take responsibility for their own actions. The referendum option is also still in place so the citizen's rights are not being taken away.

Rep. Cochran, with all due apologies, you are either ignorant of the legislation you signed on to co-sponsor or you are being willfully deceptive about its contents.

UPDATE: Well, Rep. Cochran emailed again, with a rather damning admission: He not only knows what is in the legislation - he knows because he caused the legislation to be drafted:

Do you understand the current process for passing a wheel tax? County Commissions for years would pass a wheel tax and then blame the legislature for passing the private act implementing it. Under this act, they are directly accountable to the people of the county that is effected (sic). If they go against the wishes of the citizens they will be voted out. Most commissions will most likely go with a referendum for political cover. For the record, I not only read the legislation, I asked for it to be drafted last year.

True. But the tax increase would still be in place.

Cochran also maintains that "Most commissions will most likely go with a referendum for political cover." Perhaps. But by making it possible to pass a wheel tax increase by simple majority instead of a two-thirds majority, Cochran's legislation would undermine that impact - and make it easier for county commissions to increase wheel taxes. Simultaneously, by ending the right of citizens to stop a wheel tax increase via a petition drive and referendum, Cochran would make it all the more tempting for county commissions to try to pass a wheel tax without a referendum.

My reply to Cochran:

You actually asked for legislation to be drafted that would end the right of citizens to stop a wheel tax increase via a petition drive and referendum, and make it easier for county commissions to increase wheel taxes? And you call yourself a Republican?

I'm sure my readers - Republicans who oppose higher taxes - will be interested to know you asked for the legislation to be drafted. I'm sure the people who follow TNTaxRevolt.org religiously will be glad to know, too. They like to target pro-tax increase legislators for defeat.

UPDATE: Another email from Rep. Cochran, in its entirety:

The intent of my legislation was too prevent the legislature from circumventing the will of the people and passing wheel taxes through private acts. It was my intent for the bill to amend only TCA Sec. 5-8-102 (c)(1), but it was drafted and inadvertenly deleted the entire (c) section. That was an mistake that I just noticed in the bill's enacting language and take responsibility for. I am not opposed to amending the bill to change the 1/2 back to 2/3 and restoring the ability of voters to petition for a referendum. If you have time sometime, please call me 423-xxx-xxxx, so we can discuss this bill and make changes to address your concerns. I enjoy your website and I believe on most issues we are in agreement.

Memo to the Governor

Here's hoping that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, having badly botched efforts to reform TennCare (Tennessee's version of Medicaid), will take the opportunity to attend this event in Washington DC on Monday. He might learn something from a true Medicaid reformer.

Fish, Barrel, Bang.

One of those folks who take everything that a liberal activist organization tells them and uncritically regurgitates it as gospel truth claimed in a comment to this recent post that my assertion that a state income tax would violate the Tennessee constitution is "unfounded." Problem is, he linked to an article I'd already debunked as a lie.

More Passion

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is being re-released to theaters nationwide March 11, in advance of Good Friday and Easter, with six minutes of the most bloody and violent scenes edited out. Here's reaction from the Nashville religious community.

February 24, 2005

The Bloggy Future of Journalism, #2

Mark Tapscott, blogger and Director, Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, thinks I'm on to something with this post. Mark, I just added your blog to my blogroll.

Heh

From The State, Columbia, S.C. [Hat tip: Michael Silence]

Looking For Tennessee Podcasters

A reporter for a Tennessee newspaper contacted me, looking for Tennessee-based podcasters. I don't know of any, but if you are a Tennessee podcaster and you want to be interviewed for a newspaper story and get your 15 minutes of fame, please leave a comment with some idea of how to contact you through your blog, email or smoke signals. If you aren't a Tennessee podcaster but you know of one, please forward them this item. Thanks

Blog Speaking Engagements

I'll be making a presentation about blogging to the Nashville chapter of the Public Relations Society of America in mid-March and a similar presentation in mid-April to the Nashville chapter of the American Marketing Association. The only group missing from the list would be the Nashville chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Ah, they'll come around eventually... Also, don't forget the BlogNashville conference in early May.

Taxpayers Bill of Rights

I've been invited by the Tennessee League of Women Voters to appear at a luncheon panel discussion on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights in mid-May in Murfreesboro, because of this research paper I wrote more than two years ago about the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept and how it has impacted the state of Colorado. More details to follow. I've been promising to update the data in that paper for a year or more. Now I have to. Good.

UPDATE: The Tennessee office of the NFIB has a good summary of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights legislation pending in the state legislature.

Legislation Greases Wheels for Wheel-Tax Increases Across Tennessee

Some state legislators in Tennessee are trying to make it harder for citizens to fight back against wheel-tax increases passed by their county government. Legislation currently being pushed in the Tennessee state senate would remove the right of Tennessee residents to use a petition to force a wheel tax increase to a referendum once it has been passed by the county commission.

The legislation also would make it much easier for local governments to raise the wheel tax by requiring only a simple majority instead of the 2/3 majority currently required by state law.

In the extended-entry section of this post I have published the text of the existing law and the text of proposed legislation that would replace it.

The short version is this: Currently, county governments can't pass a wheel tax or wheel tax increase without a two-thirds majority vote of the city council or county commission. And, once such a tax increases passes the citizens of that city or county can gather petitions to force a referendum on the tax increase. In the last two years, citizens in several Tennessee counties have forced such referendums in several Tennessee cities and counties, and wheel tax increases have been defeated in most - though not all - of those referendums.

Voters approved wheel tax increases in Dickson County earlier this year, and also in Carroll County (Jackson). But voters in the last year have rejected wheel tax increases in Williamson, Cheatham, Polk, Lewis, Rhea, Morgan, Hardin and Union counties. Voters passed a wheel tax increase in Knox County, but as Tennessee Tax Revolt makes clear, the Knox County Commission essentially gutted the referendum bypassing a property tax increase contingent upon the failure of the wheel tax, essentially making the referendum meaningless as a mandate on the wheel tax because if you voted for or against the wheel tax, your taxes still went up.

In Blount County last week, a wheel tax increase failed to pass by two thirds vote in the county commission, which voted 12-8 for it. Had the legislation been law, Blount County residents would be hit with a $10 increase in their wheel tax - and no right to force the issue to a referendum.

Now, the Empire is striking back, with legislation designed to lessen the power of citizens over their elected officials. If the legislation passes, county commissions could pass a wheel tax increase by a simple majority and citizens could no longer use a petition drive to force a referendum on it. Only the county commission could call a referendum on a proposed wheel tax increase.

The legislation - Senate Bill 698 - is sponsored by state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville. In the state House, the legislation is sponsored by John Hood, D-Murfreesboro; David Hawk, R-Greenville, Jerome Cochran, R-Elizabethton; Les Winningham, D-Huntsville; Sherry Jones, D-Nashville; and David Davis, R-Johnson City.

In the state Senate, the bill is on the March 1 meeting agenda for the State and Local Government committee. Although Republicans have a 17-16 numerical edge in the state Senate, they don't have control of the body thanks to two turncoat Republicans who voted for a Democrat, John Wilder, to be Lt. Governor last month. Wilder put Democrats in charge of most committees, including the State and Local Government committee. That committee is chaired by state Sen. Steve Cohen of Memphis, a liberal Democrat who can be expected to favor making it easier for local governments to raise taxes. In addition, five of the nine members of the committee are Republicans - but two of them happen to be Ketron and Ramsey, sponsors of this very bad legislation.

So, the bill likely will survive the committee. Whether it passes in the full Senate or in the state House remains to be seen. My guess is, if the legislation gets sufficient publicity, it will die rapidly.

Unforutnately, the Tennessee news media has, so far, ignored this potential news story brewing at the state legislature. They shouldn't. Perhaps one of the local Nashville reporters, editors and news producers who I know read my blog regularly will decide to cover it. It's an easy story to cover. I've laid out the background data above, and certainly the newspapers and teevee news channels have file photos or video of things like recent tax protests and wheel-tax referendum petition drives. All they need do now is to send out a reporter or a camera crew and do "man on the street" interviews, asking regular folks if they think the state legislature ought to make it easier for their county commission to raise wheel taxes, and harder for the people to stop them.

Another question that needs answered: Why does Ramsey, a self-styled conservative Republican who lost his chance to become Lt. Governor because two of his fellow Republican state senators chose instead to vote for Democrat John Wilder for that position - want county commissions to be able to more easily raise taxes on his constituents and on all Tennesseans - and why does he want the people of Tennessee to have less power to stop tax increases?

The text of the current law and proposed legislation follows...

Here is the section of the Tennessee Code which would be deleted by the legislation, followed by the language that would replace it if the legislation passes.

Sec. 5-8-102(c):
(c) Motor Vehicle Tax - Imposition.
(1) No resolution authorizing such motor vehicle privilege tax shall take effect unless it is approved by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the county legislative body at two (2) consecutive, regularly scheduled meetings or unless it is approved by a majority of the number of qualified voters of the county voting in an election on the question of whether or not the tax should be levied.

(2) (A) Except as provided in subdivision (c)(2)(B), if there is a petition of registered voters amounting to ten percent (10%) of the votes cast in the county in the last gubernatorial election which is filed with the county election commission within thirty (30) days of final approval of such resolution by the county legislative body, then the county election commission shall call an election on the question of whether or not the tax should be levied in accordance with the provisions of this section.

(B) In any county having a population of not less than eight hundred twenty-five thousand (825,000) nor more than eight hundred thirty thousand (830,000) according to the 1990 federal census or any subsequent federal census, if there is a petition of ten percent (10%) of the qualified voters who voted in the county in the last gubernatorial election which is filed with the county election commission within thirty (30) days of final approval of such resolution by the county legislative body, then the county election commission shall call an election on the question of whether or not the tax should be levied in accordance with the provisions of this section.

(3) The local governing body shall direct the county election commission to call such election to be held in a regular election or in a special election for the purpose of approving or rejecting such tax levy.

Replacement Language:
(c) The county legislative body shall choose one (1) of the two (2) following options for authorizing such motor vehicle privilege tax:

(1) The county legislative body shall authorize such tax by adopting a resolution by majority vote of the members who are entitled to vote at two (2) consecutive regularly scheduled meetings of the county legislative body; or

(2)(A) The county legislative body shall direct the county election commission to call an election to be held in a regular election or in a special election for the purpose of approving or rejecting such tax levy.

February 23, 2005

Another Podcasting Post

Here's a podcasting primer, from PBS' NewsHour program.

Corked Bat

Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee, is under fire for a comment he made recently at the Williamson County Republican Party's Presidents Day dinner.

Corker said, "To be honest, I think the last thing the United State Senate needs is another lawyer," an obvious swipe at rival candidate Ed Bryant and likely rival candidate Van Hilleary, two lawyers and former congressmen. Knoxville News Sentinel blogger Michael Silence posted the full text of Bryant's press release in response. Excerpt:

Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker has attacked former Congressman Ed Bryant for being an attorney, despite the fact that records reveal the former state finance commissioner under Gov. Don Sundquist has taken at least $100,684 from lawyers to fund his U.S. Senate campaign. Corker leveled his attack at the Williamson County Republican Party's Presidents Day Dinner saying, "To be honest, I think the last thing the United State Senate needs is another lawyer."

"I understand Tennessee politics is a contact sport and Bob Corker's entitled to run his campaign as he sees fit," Bryant said. "However, before Mr. Corker trots out his attack- the-attorney sound bite again, I'd suggest he return the $100,684 he's already taken from lawyers or risk exposing himself as the same type of double-talking hypocrite Tennessee voters have rejected in the past."

Analysis of the Corker for Senate year-end report of contributions on file with the Federal Election Commission at www.fec.gov, reveals that Corker has already taken at least $100,684.47 in contributions from individuals who listed their occupation as "attorney." The total does not include those individuals who indicated they were "retired" or failed to list their occupation.

Interestingly, Tennessee's history of U.S. Senators is replete with statesmen who earned law degrees including U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander, Fred Thompson, and Howard Baker.

Corker thinks otherwise. And his staffers are being rude about it, according to one of my commenters in response to a previous post regarding the 2006 Senate race:

Add rude campaign staff to the strikes against Bob Corker. I called, introduced myself, and asked about Corker's "the laast thing we need in the Senaate is anahther lawhlyer" cut at the other Republican candidates at the Williamson County President's Day dinner, and I was bombarded with inquiries of "Who are you? Where do you go to school? Who are you working for - Bryant?" etc etc.

I again introduced myself, my school, and said I'm working for nobody but thanks for definitively eliminating one campaign employment prospect for me!

TN 2006 Senate Race: Who Will Blog First?

Increasingly, political candidates are starting blogs. Patrick Ruffini - who ran the Bush campaign's blog efforts - notes a few of them here.

Shameless self-promotion: I am currently offering my services as a blog consultant and/or blog editor/manager to any conservative candidate running in Tennessee for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by Sen. Bill Frist - none of which currently has a blog. First come, first served. Three bonafide conservatives and one moderate Big Government-type Republican are running for the GOP nomination. Unless conservative voters coalesce behind one of the three conservatives, the ideologically malleable moderate with a record of coziness with Democrats and with politicans pushing big tax increases will win the nomination.

A well-executed blog strategy may be crucial to unifying conservative voters behind one candidate.

Memo to Ed Bryant, Beth Harwell and Van Hilleary: The big Tennessee newspapers will be against you from now until election day. In the primaries, they will back Bob Corker, both on their editorial pages and more subtly in their news coverage. In the general election they will back the Democratic nominee the same way - vigorously no matter who it is and intensely if it is Harold Ford Jr. Blogs are the the cheapest way to counter the intense and unrelenting media bias you will face, to break the Big Media info-monopoly, and to route around the Big Media filter to get your message out intact.

And blogs are an incredibly cheap way to raise money, build a connected network of grassroots support, and respond to opponents' attacks. Blogs gave John Thune a crucial edge in his defeat of Tom Daschle last year.

What are you waiting for?

February 22, 2005

Bredesen Boomlet Begets Buttons

Some entrepreneurial soul has started selling political buttons for the 2008 presidential campaign touting several different candidates, including Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. Get 'em here. Also available: 2008 "for president" buttons for Max Baucus, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Mike Easley, John Edwards, Russ Feingold, John Lewis, Blanche Lincoln, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Ed Rendell and Mark Warner.

Er, I guess the proprietor is not a Republican.

In related news, the website Bredesen2008.com has been registered, though it is unclear if the registrant has any connection to Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen or is merely domain-name speculating.

According to a search of the WHOIS database, Bredesen2008.com was registered on January 9th of this year. There is no contact name - instead, the contact is listed as SeedAuction.com and there is an AOL email address listed. The SeedAuction.com domain name is registerd by Linda Dunaway, Baskins Creek Road, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and another AOL email address.

Meanwhile, BredesenForPresident.com was registered on : Nov. 24, 2004 - but the registrant paid extra to keep their identity private. My guess is, Bredesen2008.com was registered by a Bredesen fan or amateur domain name speculator. But the secretive registrant of BredesenForPresident.com may have registered the name on Bredesen's behalf.

Harold Ford Jr.

I was going to write a post looking at the chances for U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee to win the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by Sen. Bill Frist, but know I don't have to. Memphis Mike Hollihan has written the definitive post on the subject. No excerpts because you need to read the whole thing, which includes a good selection of well-chosen links to other articiles and also a lengthy and well-done anaylsis of the Tennessee 2006 Senate race on the Republican side.

Bookmark it - Hollihan's piece is foundational to understanding the 2006 Senate race in Tennessee.

February 21, 2005

"Gov. Bredesen has botched the TennCare fix..."

Political columnist Tim Chavez in Sunday's Tennessean:

There is a growing and obvious truth that not enough people - including Tennessee Democrats - are willing to admit: Gov. Bredesen has botched the TennCare fix and left the state in a precarious fiscal and moral situation. Predicating an entire reform plan and state budget on favorable decisions from the federal courts is like depending on Kid Rock to spend his free night in front of a fire with a good book. Don't be surprised when the opposite happens - with terrible results.

More on Podcasting

Here's a fantastic story about podcasting from the Detroit News.

It may sound like a fringe, geek hobby, but podcasting is actually the latest way entertainment is morphing into an on-demand, Tivo style of delivery. While it's a grassroots communication tool now, big corporations like General Motors are testing the waters. "The neatest thing about podcasting is that it takes you back to the pamphlet days of 1776 when Patrick Henry and those guys were doing all that 'Give me liberty or give me death' stuff," said Scott Westerman.

"In the 1770s, anyone could write a pamphlet," Westerman said. "Blogging is the modern version of that. But podcasting is better than blogging, because the spoken word conveys much more emotion than the written word."

... It's the democratic quality of the medium that most delights [Michael] Wiley, GM's director of new media. "People had such fear about the concentration of media ownership, with just a few major corporations owning much of the media," Wiley said. "But all of a sudden these two new ways of communicating, blogging and podcasting, have emerged. And it's more democratic than the media has ever been."

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Blogosphere

Ed Cone offers a beginner's guide to the blogosphere.

MovableType Cast

The founders of MovableType and the blogging software of the same name are profiled by the AP today.

Mad Mullahs Attack Iranian Bloggers

The BBC reports:

Iran is becoming an increasingly dangerous place to keep an online diary. Web logs have become a popular forum for dissent. And the Iranian government has responded by arresting dozens of bloggers.

Corporate Crisis Blogging

Here's some good advice for corporate executives on how to use blogs in a crisis.

If done correctly, corporate blogging in a crisis can significantly enhance communication with external and internal stakeholders. But I always caution management that despite their dramatically increased popularity, blogs are just one of many traditional and online tools that should be considered. In the end the right mix of communication tools and using the blog wisely within that mix are vital to responding to a crisis successfully. If management doesn't heed that advice, blogging in times of crisis can easily backfire because blogs are all about the open exchange of subjective opinions, and corporate blogging therefore translates into relinquishing communication control.

On the plus side blogs are an excellent listening tool that allows companies to establish direct rapport with stakeholders who are eager to express how they perceive company positions and deeds. Our client partners regularly pick up critical information through automated Internet and intranet monitoring, which includes the systematic monitoring of a quickly growing number of relevant blogs.

In addition, blogs can easily be updated during a crisis, they enable instant two-way communication with stakeholders around the globe, and they create a public record of opinions and related facts that helps minimize rumors and speculation. As the number of bloggers continues to increase, more and more stakeholders will come to appreciate and eventually expect corporate blogging in good times and in times of crisis.