Posted on 06/30/2002 12:07:17 AM PDT by GailA
Tennessee Budget Battle Remarks to the House by Gov. Don Sundquist Email story to a friend
June 29, 2002
These are the remarks by Gov. Don Sundquist to the House Saturday as he pleaded with members to pass a bill allowing him to keep essential services operating in case of a government shutdown on Monday.
He began his speech about 10 p.m. CDT:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we stand 26 hours away from an unprecedented shutdown of government services in the state of Tennessee.
"Certainly we're treading on uncharted territory this evening. As I come to you this evening, I do not come here to scare anyone, in an attempt for votes for any particular revenue measure. I come here to ask for your help in living up to our collective responsibilities to protect the health and welfare of the people of Tennessee.
"These crucial hours aren't about Democrats and Republicans. It's not about the House or the Senate, and this is not about politics. It's not about trickery or deception. It's about insuring the minimal basic health, safety and security for Tennesseans.
"Clearly, my friends, we need to put into place a safety net tonight, so tomorrow we can focus on passing the budget and a revenue measure. We cannot risk the inaction which threatens our citizens well-being.
"State government's number one responsibility is the safety of our citizens. If we do not pass this legislation to assure a safety net, we run great risk.
"Prisons without prison guards. Children in custody without care. Mentally ill patients unattended. Communities and highways without protective services and emergency management services gone.
That's just to name a few.
"Last Wednesday, I talked with the attorney general, and after that consultation I simply asked the General Assembly to pass on two readings the appropriations bill that is now before you.
"I did it to ensure we had an appropriate safety net in place and available to act upon if needed. I was optimistic that the final passage of this bill would not be needed. I'm still hopeful that we can together reach a consensus on a 12-month appropriations bill. One that will fund state government and its services adequately.
"Time is running out. I hear a clock ticking very loudly. I urge you, my friends, to pass this legislation this evening. And I will assure you that I will hold it on my desk until the last possible moment tomorrow. I won't sign it until the last possible moment tomorrow.
"That will allow us at least one last day to focus all our energies on passing a long-term budget that funds the services our citizens deserve and, you know what, have a right to expect.
"I respect the opinions of those who don't agree with one another on various revenues and budget options. But that's not what tonight is about. The intent tonight is to simply ask you to pass this safety measure sooner rather than later.
"We cannot waste time deliberating this basic and vital measure. It only makes sense to pass it, and get on with more difficult work that needs to be done tomorrow.
"I respect the debate that's been going on from different viewpoints. If we're going to be successful at passing something meaningful tomorrow, then we need to take the first step this evening and re-establish trust between the differing views that we hold.
"We can do this. We can accomplish the task tomorrow if we work together. If we give a little. So I would ask you respectfully to do what the Senate did a few minutes ago by an overwhelming measure of votes and pass this legislation.
And let start trusting each other again. And let's work together for the good of these people of Tennessee.
May God continue to bless this body, our government, our great state of Tennessee and the United States of America.
Thank you.
don we don't trust you any more than we can pick you up and throw you ONE inch. YOU LIED TO GET RE-ELECTED, YOU LIED ABOUT THE NEED FOR AN INCOME TAX. AND YOU ARE A TRAITOR TO THE TN CONSTITUTION.
June 29, 2002
Lt. Gov. John Wilder, the speaker of the Senate, gave an extemporaneous speech on the Senate floor Saturday as lawmakers worked toward a Sunday night deadline to balance the budget. An Associated Press reporter took dictation of Wilder's speech.
There was no prepared text. The `6-and-0' plan he refers to is one that would create a 6 percent income tax and eliminate the state's 6 percent sales tax.
____________________________________________ "I had a very clear insight this morning about 3 o'clock to what I should say.
"First of all I need to say thank you. Tomorrow is the last day of this session. Tomorrow is the end of this year. And I'm proud that every one of you is here and I'm proud of the Senate and our committees.
"Each and every one of you has a unique position that you fill.
"It's been tough and we're tired, and we want to go home. It's been tough on me because he (a minister standing with him) knows I don't lie, I don't cheat, I don't gamble, I don't drink, I don't smoke. But I've got something else wrong with me. I'm impatient.
"But have I lied? Did I lie? Are you going to lie?
"This morning about 3 o'clock a bed devil got in the bed with me and that's when I knew what I needed to say to you.
"That bed devil's name was Uncle Sam. He was in the bed with me.
"We've got a problem. We've got a problem. We need equity in taxation and efficiency in government. Both of them.
"When I came back in 2000 -- and can't anybody say they lied anymore than they did in my last race -- when I came back in 2000 I wanted equity. I wanted Uncle Sam to do what Uncle Sam is supposed to do, to treat us like he did before 1986 when a man from Oregon said you can't deduct the sales tax and he's in the only state in the nation without a sales tax. He hits us for a billion and a half dollars.
"Have I lied? I said I wouldn't vote for an income tax. I said it twice, not once. The first time had more dignity than the second time.
"I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. I took an oath under God. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. In 1870 the people voted to tax investment income. They didn't vote to tax earned income.
"Three courts since that time have said if they didn't say you can, you can't. A lot of people think this court will say if it didn't say you can't, you can. And it may do it.
"But that oath was just as important as anything else I said.
"I said I wouldn't vote for an income tax. But to talk about 6-and-0. It's six and 1.1 billion, that's what 0 is, out of Uncle Sam's pocket.
"Now 6 is high, it's higher than 4.5, and I know some of you have a problem with 6. But my price is a billion, 100 million dollars.
"I am being personal.
"Senator Cohen, the Senate is the Senate. It is. It is. I'm not a leader, I don't need to lead. I trust you. I don't need to tell you what to do. I trust you. I trust you.
"The state of Tennessee has got $9 billion worth of taxes that we collect. We've got $11 billion more dollars that we get from Uncle Sam. But do you know how much of that $11 billion the state of Tennessee pays? It pays $10 billion of it. We get a billion from somewhere else. It pays $10 billion of it. Ten billion of the $11 billion he sends back to us is paid by the taxpayers of the state of Tennessee.
"But we don't have a voice with what we can do with that $10 billion. No, we can't touch that $10 billion dollars that we pay into his kitty. Even though he sends it back to us we can't tell him what we'll do with it. No, you can't do that, can't do that.
"When I came here our budget was $1 billion. When (Gov.) Winfield (Dunn) left it was $2 billion. When (Gov.) Ray (Blanton) left it was $3 billion. When (Gov.) Lamar (Alexander) left it was $6.5 billion. When (Gov.) Ned (McWherter) got here it was $6.5 billion, when he left it was $13 billion. It's now $20 billion.
It's $20 billion.
"We've got a 12 or 13 percent increase in the burden in taxation on the people of Tennessee because Uncle Sam ain't doing his part. He not only doesn't do his part he tells us what we have to do.
"We have bled education. We put a half-cent sales tax in there for education. We did. We bled it. We bled it.
"We are on the board of directors for the stockholders of this company, the taxpayers. We have got to put the state of Tennessee first. We've got to forget about ourselves. What happens to us does not matter. We've got to do right for the state of Tennessee.
What's right? I trust you, I trust the committees to do what's right. I trust the committees to do what's right. I tell you our committees are good.
"Now, it's true, it's true finance hasn't told us what to do yet. Well, not with the total budget. They told us what to do to get by until the end. They told us to levy a 1-cent tax for the shortfall and you did.
"They also told us to use the tobacco money to give to the state of Tennessee. Part of that was wrong. Part of it was right.
What was wrong? The part that was non-recurring money we shouldn't have spent. We should have put it in the Rainy Day Fund. But the rest of that money absolutely unequivocally belongs to the taxpayers of this state and we've got $160 million in the bank right now we wouldn't have if we hadn't done that.
(He refers to having an opponent in his last election.)
"I needed that opposition. I didn't need a free ride. I had been sprinkled but I hadn't been baptized. I needed that opposition. I found out something I didn't know. Somebody knew it 2000 years ago but I didn't know it. He said you're not for me you're against me, and they are.
"But right now this state is on each of our backs. Not any more on my back than it is your back.
"I don't know how to make you do something or force you to do something or threaten you to do something. I want you to do what's right. I want you to put the state of Tennessee first and do what's right.
"It may be, it may be and I don't think it is, it may be one or two people in here don't know what right is, but I don't know that that's true.
"We need to be responsible and do what's right. Forget about us. Put the state first. We need to fund the budget tomorrow. And balance the budget. We should have already done it a month ago.
"A month ago. We shouldn't have been here all this long. We should have gone home. We need to balance the budget or cut the budget.
"But DOG (reference to the no-new-taxes budget, also known as DOGS) ain't right. DOG is not right. DOG might not even be for the right reason, I don't know.
"Is that what we ought to do? Is that what we are going to do?
Or are we going to do the DOGS and come back next week and do what somebody tells us to do?
"I'm not telling you what to do. I'm telling you to do what's right.
"Now. I wanted a billion-plus dollars. I even thought I could change a word and get a billion dollars. I thought we could change `sales' tax to `gross receipts' and get a billion dollars.
"But Uncle Sam doesn't let people deduct gross receipts. Corporations can.
"Uncle Sam won't let us tax taxes. Uncle Sam won't pay taxes on taxes. Uncle Sam, not just through the Congressional act but through the rulings of the IRS, says you can't tax that tax. Uncle Sam.
"We've got a 13 percent load on our back-end for the taxpayers of Tennessee because Uncle Sam is not picking up his part.
"He don't normally do that. You don't know what I know about agriculture and I'm not going to talk about that. I don't need to but maybe I'm going to.
"He won't pay you something for something but he'll pay you something for nothing. He'll pay you for not growing cotton. If you've got some damp land he won't let you plow it and if you've got a bird sitting in a tree, a bird with spots on it he won't let you cut it down. He won't let you dig out coal when God put it there ...
"TVA is broke because they had five atomic energy plants ready to go into production and they shut them down. Energy is our potential raw material in our gross national product. And we've got a bird or a fish and we've got Uncle Sam, because we've got to balance the budget.
"We need efficiency in government. We don't need to approve everything everybody tells us to if it's not needed. But we don't need no DOG, I'm telling you. That's a threat. That's a threat.
Highway patrolmen going home Monday.
"Why can't we make Uncle Sam do his part? We can't make him tax. But we're going to cut, why can't we cut across the board? If we cut across the board it wouldn't be but 5 percent. Why can't we tell everybody, `You've got to save 5 percent?'
"Why in the world can't you tell everybody you've got to cut 5 percent? Why? Why?
"Cut the lights and the air conditioning out at night and don't buy a Mercedes and buy one of those trucks that have three wheels on the back instead of two.
"I'm not telling you what to do because I don't know how to lead. Everybody tells you I don't know how to lead.
"There are two forces. There's the positive force and the negative force. In the organic world they're easy to identify.
Newton said when there is an action there is an equal reaction, an equal force in velocity. Electrons and neutrons, cathode and anode, put it around a piece of metal and it makes a magnet.
"Likes repel and likes attract. In the inorganic world there's a positive and a negative force. It's constructive and destructive.
It's good, it's bad. It's love, it's hate. It's God and the devil.
And the sum total of both forces add up to put us where we are.
"Just like where there's an action and reaction of equal force and velocity.
"We've got one more day. That's all we've got. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm asking you to do what's right for the state of Tennessee and be responsible and with the very best in your soul put the state of Tennessee first to get equity in taxation and efficiency in government.
"Thank you for listening to me."
Actually I read/heard somewhere that Algore said something the other day about there being a crisis in TN.
I'll bet anyone can guess where he stands on taxes.
I hope the loser further endears himself to the people of TN by opening his big yap.
The budget tells you how much money is going in and how much is going out. It doesn't tell you what the assets of the state are.
Cancel TennCare and you've solved your problem. What people get for free they do not value.
Personally I'd like to hear from a bunch of canidates in all parties from state Rep to the U.S. Senator vacancy where they stand on the income tax.
Point your browser to the link above and find out the true state of Tenn's Finances.
From an article I read a couple of weeks ago a T.D.O.T. offical was bragging that TDOT was a huge landowner. I take this to be lands apart from what is our hi-way system.
I would find it a bit liberating if Tennessee were to become another Taxachusetts, as that pretty much persuade me to set those thoughts aside and look for more reasonable accommodations.
If I wanted pathetic socialism I wouldn't have to drive any further north than Georgia.
Good luck, Tennessee.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
Newest plan afloat is Fowler's foul plan, which will impose a 4.5% income tax ONE YEAR BEFORE a Constitution Convention can be held, and they are trying to admend that to skirt around the Con-Con..and from what my friend long time legislative watch dog Bobbi Patray tells me the Con-Con is RIGGED to produce ONLY an income tax.
They know this on the Hill, and this is why they float the "let the voter" decide crap.
The Constitution can be admended WITHOUT a convention. They did it for the Victims Rights Admendment a few years ago. It must pass both Houses for two years by a simple majority. Then be published in the papers, then go to the voters in a gubernatorial election year for a up or down vote.
Better there then Maine. How do you people put up with him?
And the thoughts of seeing him on TV again is just too much to bare. Good Lord, I thought we were DONE with Bore!
How does raising taxes "protect" the health and welfare of the People?
"Likes repel and likes attract. In the inorganic world there's a positive and a negative force. It's constructive and destructive.
"It's good, it's bad. It's love, it's hate. It's God and the devil. And the sum total of both forces add up to put us where we are. Just like where there's an action and reaction of equal force and velocity."
I have absolutely no idea what this gentleman is talking about.
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