Tennessee Budget & Tax Policy:

Surplus Confusion Update, August 18, 2005
NASHVILLE - Today's Tennessean story about the state's revenue surplus may help clear up the confusion over two conflicting press releases issued yesterday by Gov. Phil Bredesen's office and his Department of Finance & Administration....

Tennessee Ends Fiscal Year With Huge Revenue Surplus, August 17, 2005
NASHVILLE - Tennessee state government finished the 2004-2005 fiscal year with a $260.8 million surplus, according to data released today by the Department of Finance & Administration....

Bipartisan Spending Spree, August 07, 2005
Here is the latest draft of my policy research paper, Spending Spree: The Bipartisan Assault That is Killing The Constitutional Cap on the Growth of Tennessee's State Budget. I believe I have addressed all the comments and criticisms I've received since the last time I posted it. Let me know what you think....

Debunking the Bond Rating Myth Again, August 07, 2005
Larry Daughtrey's column in today's Tennessean mocks anti-income tax activists for aksing legislators and candidates to sign a pledge promising to oppose any attempt to create a state income tax. Daughtrey's central point is that the push to create an income tax is dead, so no pledge drive is needed. But Daughtrey ignores the elephant in the room....

The Truth About Tennessee Taxes, August 05, 2005
If I ever decide to stop writing about Tennessee's taxes and state budget, you can always turn to Mark Rose, who takes Nashville Is Talking's Brittney Gilbert, S-Town Mike and Jackson Miller to school on the issue with this masterful post....

He Hasn't Said No, August 03, 2005
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...

Playing Games, July 27, 2005
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that State Revenue Commissioner Loren Chumley said yesterday the state expects to have a surplus above $100 million when the books are closed on the 2004-05 fiscal year. Chumley, speaking to the Rotary Club of Knoxville, attributed the windfall to a boost in business taxes, specifically franchise and excise taxes. That's strange. At the end of June, with 11 months of revenue in hand, the state's revenue surplus was already...

Tennessee Gets Low Mark For Fiscal Responsibility, July 15, 2005
Economist Dr. Barry Poulson, an expert in state government finance, spending and tax policy, has produced a new Fiscal Discipline Report Card for the states. Colorado, which has a constitional provision that limits the annual growth of state spending to a sustainably level and requires surplus revenue be sent back to taxpayers, got an A-. Tennessee, which has a nearly-toothless constitutional cap on the growth of spending, got a D....

Tennessee's Tax Surplus Soars in June, July 08, 2005
This will be in your newspaper tomorrow... NASHVILLE - Tennessee state government continues to pile up a large revenue surplus, adding $92.6 million to that surplus just in the month of June, according to data released by the Department of Finance and Administration at 11 a.m. today. That data shows that, through the first 11 months of revenue collection for the 2004-05 fiscal year, revenue is up $194.5 million more than the budgeted estimate of...

There Are None So Blind..., July 07, 2005
The state of Tennessee is claiming that its new tax on illegal drugs is generating more revenue for the state than it is costing to enforce, and media has bought the story. But an analysis released last week by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research finds the tax has actually cost far more to administer than it has generated in revenue - and the "Uncontrolled Substances Tax" or UST has serious constitutional problems....

Pushing an Unconstitutional Payroll Tax, June 17, 2005
Today's print edition of the Nashville Business Journal has a good editorial in response to a June 12 Tennessean editorial calling for Nashville to enact a 1 percent payroll tax to balance its budget on the backs of non-residents from the suburbs who work within the city limits. The NBJ piece won't be online until Monday. Meanwhile, I'd like to point out something that the NBJ editorial writer didn't mention: a payroll tax would violate...

Watch This Space, June 11, 2005
Nashville journalist and blogger Sharon Cobb has been working on a big scoop involving TennCare and the administration of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen - and she's alerted some other Tennessee political bloggers that she'll be sharing some of the "smoking gun" documents with them as she publishes her scoop. Now, it seems she's about ready to release the scoop, posting the following in a comment to my previous post:There are internal memos that show this...

Does Tennessee Really Have $4 Billion Socked Away?, June 10, 2005
The Frog Gigger has been looking at the state of Tennnessee's Comprehensive Annual Financal Report and finds the state had about $4 billion squirreled away in various reserve funds, even after subtracting for current and future liabilities, at the end of 2004. The total funds hoarded by Tennessee represents about $5,000 per family of four. Frog Gigger writes:Here's an interesting stat. Remember when the income tax was being discussed and the proponents were crying about...

Up Up And Away: Tennessee Surplus Grows Again, June 10, 2005
Tennessee's tax revenue surplus grew by another $10 million in May, thanks to $14.6 million more in sales tax revenue than budget-makers had estimated. Sales tax revenue rose 5 percent in May over May 2004, and is up 4.52 percent for the fiscal year-to-date. Overall, tax revenue through the first ten months of revenue collection for the fiscal 2004-05 state budget, total revenue collected is up 5.06 percent, or $102 million, over what the budget-makers...

Spending Spree, June 04, 2005
Here is the latest draft of my new research paper, Spending Spree: The Bipartisan Assault That is Killing The Constitutional Cap on the Growth of Tennessee's State Budget, for your reading enjoyment. If you have downloaded it previously, this new version contains additional information and corrects some factual errors. When the paper is completely finished, it will be augmented with extensive footnotes, and I'll create an online version with hyperlinks instead of footnotes. The paper...

A Vote of No Confidence, May 31, 2005
Jay Johnson, who has a new blog at Backassward.com, responds to the email Gov. Phil Bredesen sent to all state employees after the arrest last Thursday of four legislators on a variety of federal corruption charges. Johnson to Bredesen:The real tragedy is that YOU haven't recognized that the public has no confidence in our state government that has existed for a long time before these arrests.Read the whole thing - it's rather pointed and on...

On TennCare and Corrupt Legislators, May 30, 2005
Sate Sen. Jim Bryson, R-Franklin, has sent out an email discussing last week's arrest of four legislators on corruption charges and also detailing the effort) made by many Republicans in the state legislature to prevent Gov. Phil Bredesen from slashing 67,000 peopled deemed "uninsurable" from the TennCare rolls (and another 11,500 people who are mentally ill). It's an effort that failed because, as, Bryson notes, "the Governor fought this plan with all the tools at...

Busting the Cap 2, May 28, 2005
On Friday I posted an entry titled "Busting the Cap," about how the Tennessee legislature stands ready to once again exceed the state constitution's cap on the growth of state spending. At this time, it appears they won't do so, though legislation has been filed and has moved through the committee process in both houses of the General Assembly should legislators decide it is necessary to pass the enabling legislation needed to exceed the cap....

Busting the Cap, May 27, 2005
The Tennessee legislature is prepared to exceeed the state constitution's cap on the annual growth rate of state spending for the 13th time in 21 years - if Gov. Phil Bredesen requests it. But so far it appears the Bredesen administration will not ask the legislature to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of that spending cap like the administration did last year. The state constitution limits the year-over-year growth of state spending...

Smoke-Filled Room Update, May 24, 2005
The Tennessean has a report on the two secret closed-to-the-public meetings held by the state Senate Finance Committee, in violation of their own rules, in order to make decisions about various budget matters. State Sen. Roy Herron, one of the senators who attended those secret meetings, is coming in for some well-deserved abuse in an editorial in today's Tennessean about the secret meetings:Herron described the meeting as a get-together among "friends." Yeah, right. "Friends" who...

A New Push to Limit State Budget Growth?, May 23, 2005
Tennessee state Sen. Raymond Finney, R-Maryville, writing in a newsletter to his constituents, notes that state government's budget under Gov. Phil Bredesen is growing by about $2 billion per year. Bredesen's predecessor, Gov. Don Sundquist, presided over annual spending increases of about $1 billion per year, eventually pushing the state into a fiscal crisis as his rapid spending build-up outstripped the growth of the state's economy and the ability of taxpayers to fund the spending...

The Smoke -Filled Room, May 23, 2005
Tennessee's legislative dealings are supposed to be conducted in public, not in secret meetings, but it looks like that law was bent just a bit on Sunday and again on Monday when several members of the state Senate Finance Committee - enough for a quorum - met in secret to discuss the forthcoming budget vote. At stake: how the state will spend $25 billion of your money. The AP reports:Members of the committee claimed it...

Why Taxpayers Won't Get Surplus Rebate, May 20, 2005
Today's Tennessean front page contains a story I never thought I'd see in that paper - much less atop page one: Give taxpayers back $272M, some say. The story, by Trent Seibert, looks at how Gov. Phil Bredesen and many legislators are rushing to spend $272 million in unexpected revenue - more than half of it from excess taxes collected this year - and why taxpayers won't be getting any of it back.More tax collections...

TABOR On Parade, May 19, 2005
This coming Saturday (May 21) I'll be speaking in Murfreesboro at the 2005 Convention of the Tennessee League of Women Voters, featuring a panel discussion of the proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights pending in the state legislature. Also appearing on the panel: state Sen. Jim Bryson, R-Franklin, and two folks from the group called "Tennesseans for Fair Taxation," which favors big tax increases and creation of an unconstitutional state income tax. The festivities begin at...

Hey, Look! A Surplus!, May 19, 2005
The Tennessean and the Nashville City Paper have both finally noticed that the state is running a large revenue surplus this fiscal year - and both are out today with reports that that Gov. Phil Bredesen is already making plans to spend it....

Oink Oink, May 16, 2005
The Tennessean examines the pork spending lawmakers in the state legislature are requesting as the legislative session moves toward a budget vote. A real good read. One minor quibble: Reporter Trent Seibert writes that "constituents back home put the pressure on for lawmakers to bring back the bacon." That should have read "some constituents back home put the pressure on for lawmakers to bring back the bacon." I know of some people who vote against...

Tennessee Surplus Soars in April, May 13, 2005
Tennessee collected $15.8 million more in sales tax revenue in April than it had expected, and rolled up a $59.3 million monthly revenue surplus in April, as the state's overall budget surplus continues to grow. Nine months into fiscal year 2004-05, the state now has a $91.9 million revenue surplus - that's nearly triple the $32.7 million surplus at the end of March. If tax revenue in the final three months of this fiscal year...

State Income Tax Ban Stalls, May 04, 2005
The AP reports that the sponsor of a proposal to amend the Tennessee constitution to explicity ban a state income tax has "indefinitely delayed" her proposal after some lawmakers raised objections to it....

Tennessee's Revenue Surplus To Grow Even Larger, April 27, 2005
Joe White of the subscriber-only Nashville Bureau forwarded me a copy of his newsletter for today, with the happy news that "University of Tennessee economist Dr. Bill Fox Tuesday told members of the state Funding Board he is raising his estimate of incoming state revenues (for the end of this fiscal year) by $96 million." On the other hand, Fox is less bullish about revenue growth next year. But, then, Fox has a track record...

Pre-K Update, April 22, 2005
This report in today's Tennessean reveals that Gov. Phil Bredesen wants to increase funding for his pet Pre-K program to $150 million per year by 2010. The story quotes Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville policy think tank, in opposition to the program but the paper fails to mention or quote from the TCPR's excellent study released Monday showing how government-run pre-k programs are failing to improve academic peformance...

The Tennessee Spend-O-Meter, April 22, 2005
How fast does the Tennessee state government spend taxpayer dollars? "At over $783 per second, it turns out the answer is 'too fast for the human eye'," says the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, which has produced a great new way to illustrate just how fast state government is spending your tax dollars. It's called the Tennessee Budget Spend-O-Meter, and it provides a visual picture of just how fast the state government is spending your...

Paved With Good Intentions, April 21, 2005
Blake Wylie blogged the WSMV story about a company that has been caught installing guardrails improperly along many of Tennessee's highways - creating both a safety risk to motorists and a big expense for taxpayers. Wylie: TDOT is now going to be digging up the guardrails Lu installed...all of which is going to be paid for by Tennessee taxpayers, no doubt." But of course....

Pre-K Update, April 21, 2005
Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt emailed regarding Gov. Phil Bredesen's Pre-K plan now apparently sailing through the state Senate:The Pre-K bill made it out of the Senate Education Committee this afternoon on an 8-0 vote. It will go next to Finance, Ways, and Means. Senator Bryson tried to amend the bill to cover only at risk kids but it failed by one vote with Sen. Hagood voting against Bryson's amendment. Coincidentally, I just saw...

Pre-K Update, April 21, 2005
Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt emailed regarding Gov. Phil Bredesen's Pre-K plan now apparently sailing through the state Senate:The Pre-K bill made it out of the Senate Education Committee this afternoon on an 8-0 vote. It will go next to Finance, Ways, and Means. Senator Bryson tried to amend the bill to cover only at risk kids but it failed by one vote with Sen. Hagood voting against Bryson's amendment. Coincidentally, I just saw...

Action Opportunity, April 19, 2005
Ben Cunningham from Tennessee Tax Revolt emailed an urgent update regarding Gov. Phil Bredesen's Pre-K boondoggle, which I wrote about here earlier today in a post reporting on a new study by a policy think tank that finds that government-funded universal pre-k programs have little educational bang for the buck. Ben writes:Please call and email Senator Jamie Hagood immediately. She is a Republican from Knoxville and the Chair of the Senate Education Committee. She is...

Policy Analysts Give Low Marks to Bredesen's $25m Pre-K Plan, April 19, 2005
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is questioning Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's claim that state-funded universal pre-kindergarten is a good investment. The TCPR has released a study, Hard Lessons Learned: Applying 40 Years of Government Pre-K to Benefit Tennessee's Children Today, which concludes that "empirical evidence suggests more early education will do little to improve children’s long-term education outcomes." The study, by Drew Johnson, president of the TCPR, and Darcy Olsen, president of the Goldwater...

How Many People Could TennCare Keep For $870 Million?, April 18, 2005
From the San Francisco Chronicle comes this:The federal government is struggling to find money to pay for such basics as prescription drugs for the elderly. At the same time, government reports estimate that $1 in every $10 spent by the $300 billion Medicare system goes to erroneous, abusive or fraudulent payments. In California, an incomplete accounting identified $553 million in improper payments last year, according to a December Medicare report.There's no good reason not to...

Blogging the Tennessee Legislature's Ethics Debate, April 18, 2005
Today's Tennessean article on legislative ethics reform quotes local blogger Matthew White.Matthew White is a Nashville-based blogger behind www.southendgrounds.com, a political blog with a baseball theme. He's been following the ethics debate at the statehouse like a catcher watches a pop fly. The way he reads the legislation, lawmakers' ethics efforts are more show than substance. "Given the leadership's past, they will run to the water's edge and stop," he said. They will do "just...

In The News, April 18, 2005
The Tennessean profiles Ben Cunningham, leader of Tennessee Tax Revolt - but sends a leftwing columnist to do the story rather than a reasonably objective reporter. Odd. UPDATE: Matt White has some good comments on the Tennessean's profile of Cunningham:The paper mentions Tennesseans for Fair Taxation without pointing out that they are a pro-tax organization. They also print the group's executive director saying that [Ben's] "views do not reflect those of a majority of Tennesseans."...

Tennessee Budget Remains in Surplus, April 12, 2005
Tennessee's sales tax revenue in March was $14.8 million more than estimated by the state's budget-makers. The AP has a report here that's good as far as it goes, but doesn't quite tell the whole story. Overall, revenue collection for the month of March was $14.8 million less than anticipated - but the state still, after eight months of revenue for the current fiscal year, is running a surplus of $32.7 million. Sales tax revenue...

TennCare Scamming Uncle Sam?, April 12, 2005
Has Tennessee been ripping off Uncle Sam to fund TennCare? It looks that way.The Bush administration yesterday named 15 states, including Tennessee, that it said had used improper accounting techniques to obtain excessive amounts of federal Medicaid money. Federal officials contend that the 15 states have been ''recycling'' federal money, rather than using state and local tax revenue to pay their full share of the costs of Medicaid, which provides health insurance to more than...

Taxpayers Bill of Rights Update, April 09, 2005
A few days ago I mentioned and commented on a Steve Gill column about the proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights for Tennessee, but couldn't link to it. Now it is online, at Gill's website. Here's the link. By the way, I've been gathering fresh data and will be updating this two-year-old white paper on Tennessee's tax and spending structure and the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept, over the next few weeks in preparation for a...

TABOR: "Common Sense" Tax Reform for Tennessee, April 05, 2005
Steve Gill has written an excellent commentary on the proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights amendment to the Tennessee constitution, and the forces that are lining up to demonize and defeat it. Unfortunately, I can't link to it because it is published in the April issue of Business TN, a good statewide business magazine with a lousy website. The story simply isn't available online - not even for money. If you subscribe, or if you happen...

The London Times Thinks Bredesen is Swell, April 03, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen gave an interview to the London Times which writes a rather fawning story about Bredesen's gubernatorial record and presidential chances.Bredesen, 61, was giving his first interview to a foreign newspaper since his emergence earlier this year as a potential dark horse in the presidential race. It appeared to reflect an attempt to raise his international profile amid increasing speculation in Washington that he may become the next southern governor to come...

Caution: Hilleary's Running, March 26, 2005
Former Congressman Van Hilleary, last seen losing the governorship in 2002 to a Democrat, has launched his campaign website for the 2006 Senate race. By the way, back in 2001 in the early stages of that Tennessee gubernatorial campaign I wrote a column urging Hilleary to make his campaign message much more clear regarding the state income tax. Democrat Phil Bredesen, I wrote then, "has figured out how to explain his opposition to a state...

Open and Shut, March 26, 2005
This week's Nashville Scene has a good story by Matt Pulle asking why is Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration crafting TennCare reform plans in secret meetings - and whether those meetings violate both the state's open meetings law and Bredesen's own previously stated commitment to open government."Because of the complexities of the issues at hand, the number of the alternative courses that could be taken toward the Governor's policy goals, and the need for candor...

Feds Okay TennCare Cuts, March 25, 2005
Uncle Sam has okayed Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's plan to axe 320,000 people from TennCare, the state's Medicaid-plus program for the poor, sick and elderly. Will Bredesen really go forward with a plan to deny healthcare coverage to a big chunk of the Democratic Party's base in Tennessee? Will Republicans nominate a gubernatorial candidate with a true market-based reform plan?...

Sickening, March 20, 2005
If you're a Tennessee taxpayer, this report in today's Tennessean will make you sick:TennCare plans to triple the pay of its drug management company, despite the company's failure to perform to state standards during its first 15 months on the job. Under a proposed contract amendment, First Health Services Corp. of Glen Allen, Va., stands to make an extra $30 million over the next two years. Its maximum earnings for the contract, which began Jan....

Larry Daughtrey Is Right, March 19, 2005
Tennessean political columnist Larry Daughtrey is usually wrong, and doesn't disappoint today in his column today about TennCare. But he gets one thing right about the politics of TennCare: Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is in a political pickle:The centerpiece of Bredesen’s campaign in 2002 was that he had the experience and ability to " fix " TennCare. He would like to get the whole issue resolved, and the fallout mostly diminished, by the time he...

Tennessee Continues Surplus Revenue Collections, March 15, 2005
It appears that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's Department of Finance & Administration is playing the same game that Bredesen's predecessor in the governor's office did with the monthly revenue figures - crafting the press release to fit the political agenda. During the second term of Gov. Don Sundquist, the monthly revenue press release from F&A would be carefully crafted to fit Sundquist's agenda - raising taxes and imposing an income tax. One month, for example,...

Will the GOP Challenge Bredesen in 2006?, March 11, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen may have a well-funded GOP challenger in 2006. That's good news because Bredesen is not invincible. His complete mishandling of TennCare makes him vulnerable, and his condescension toward social conservatives and social-conservative legislation may prevent him from winning as many Republican votes as he did in 2002. The potential challenger is B.C. "Scooter" Clippard Jr., a well-connected and politically active businessman who is currenlty the Chief Development Officer for FirstBank and...

Bredesen Unveils Alternate Budget if TennCare "Reform" Stalls, March 10, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has put forth an alternative state budget plan in case the big cuts in TennCare spending needed to balance his first budget proposal aren't allowed to be enacted. The Nashville City Paper rather ridiculously calls the alternative budget a "doomsday budget" and a "disaster budget" that would impose "massive cuts to K-12 education." Both the City Paper - and The Tennessean in its story today - mislead readers on the true...

With Friends Like These..., March 09, 2005
I am proud to be listed on their blogroll under "Neo-Con Capitalist Swine," but I'm not sure this new blog is going to help or harm efforts by Tennessee liberals on behalf of TennCare....

Wheel Tax Withdrawal Update, March 09, 2005
The Knoxville News Sentinel has a good story on the withdrawal of the anti-taxpayer wheel tax legislation, reporting this morning that "legislation that would allow county commissions to enact or raise wheel taxes without a public vote has been withdrawn by sponsors, effectively killing the proposal for this year."...

Wheel Tax Bill: Key Senator Withdraws Support, March 08, 2005
News Flash: State Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, has just withdrawn his support for Senate Bill 698, which would make it easier for county commissions across Tennessee to increase car tag taxes and also strip citizens of their current right to defeat such tax increases via a petition drive and referendum. An email from Nancy Russell, analyst with the Sente Finance, Ways and Means Committee, which Sen. Henry chairs, has just been forwarded which says that...

Revolutionary Recollections, March 08, 2005
Mark Rose writes about his experience during the July 12, 2001, anti-income tax protest at the Tennessee state capital, a pivotal day in the three-year Tennessee Tax Revolt that stopped the imposition of an unconstitutional state income tax and changed the political direction of Tennessee away from tax-and-spend fiscal recklessness.There were already several protestors headed up the hill, many carrying signs, and I drove a couple of blocks past the Capitol and found a parking...

Breaking News, March 07, 2005
Though the story has been extensively reported and moved ahead by blogs over the last two weeks, the somnolent Tennessee capital press corp continues to largely ignore legislation that is pending in the state legislature that would make it easier for county commissions across Tennessee to raise car tag taxes, and strip citizens of their current right to overturn such tax increases via a petition drive and referendum. Given that voters in eight counties have...

Where's The Blog?, March 07, 2005
The new Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Tennessee-centric policy shop focused on tax and budget issues, education and healthcare, has launched its new website, at www.tennesseepolicy.org. It is not a blog and does not incorporate a blog, which is unfortunate. Just as the mainstream media is slowly learning that the passive-audience model of news delivery is no longer tenable in a networked world, policy think tanks too should incorporate the online conversation into their...

Revolting!, March 06, 2005
The Tennessean profiles the role of Tennessee Tax Revolt in the upcoming debate over raising property taxes in the city of Nashville. The story is even-handed in its treatment of the organization, which grew out of the protests against a state income tax in 1999-2002 (a story chronicled in this fine book). However, the paper ignored - or simply isn't aware of - the role that Tennessee Tax Revolt played over the last week or...

Wheel Tax Greaser Update 4, March 04, 2005
It has been eight days since this first emerged from the Tennessee legislature - eight days filled with numerous developments all chronicled here on HobbsOnline, some of them the result of original reporting (a/k/a "journalism") done by the writer of this blog. Here is a list of links to all of the stories published by The Tennessean and the Memphis Commercial-Appeal regarding this story:...

Wheel Tax Spin: Another Legislator Makes Stupid Claims , March 03, 2005
State Rep. Sherry Jones, D- Nashville, has emailed me to defend legislation pending in the state legislature that would make it easier for county commissions across Tennessee to increase wheel taxes, and end the right of citizens to try to overturn such tax increases via a petition drive and referendum. The extended entry of this post contains her email, verbatim, followed by my response....

Memo to Bredesen: Don't Reform TennCare. Really, March 03, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's plan for reforming TennCare, Tennessee's "Medicaid-Plus" healthcare program for the poor, the elderly and the disabled, consists mainly of slashing the budget. That's the wrong approach to transforming Medicaid into a workable program, argues Newt Gingrich in a new article published by the American Enterprise Institute. Bredesen would be well advised to read it. Gingrich writes......

Wheel Tax Greaser Update 3, March 02, 2005
Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel becomes the first mainstream-media journalist in Tennessee to report on the wheel-tax legislation that would have made it easier for county commissions across Tennessee to raise wheel taxes - and stripped Tennesseans of the right to overturn such tax increases via a petition drive and referendum. The headline of the story implies the legislation has been killed, and the lead says it has been "shelved," but at the...

Wheel Tax Greaser Update 2, March 01, 2005
The Tennessee state Senate's State and Local Government Committee today (in fact, right now this morning as I compose this blog entry) will take up Senate Bill 698, legislation that would make it easier for county commissions across Tennessee to raise wheel taxes while also stripping the citizenry of the right they currently have to cancel such tax increases via a successful petition drive and referendum. While state Sens. Bill Ketron and Ron Ramsey and...

Wheel Tax Greaser Update, February 28, 2005
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...

Tennessee Tax Revolt Retold, February 27, 2005
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...

It's Baack., February 26, 2005
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...

Tax Revolt! Now In Book Form, February 25, 2005
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...

Wheel Tax Spin, February 25, 2005
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...

Wheel Tax Legislation Gets a Flat, February 25, 2005
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 everyoneAll the talk...

Fish, Barrel, Bang., February 25, 2005
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 l