Gee, I guess that the state school system won't get to hire them on as high-priced "consultants" and "lobbyists" now that the income tax didn't pass. That must have really gotten in the way of their "retirement" plans...
Gee, I guess that the state school system won't get to hire them on as high-priced "consultants" and "lobbyists" now that the income tax didn't pass. That must have really gotten in the way of their "retirement" plans...
We've won. Now what?
By Bill Hobbs
The income tax is dead. Three years of efforts by the governor and some legislative leaders to impose an unconstitutional income tax on the people of Tennessee have failed. Here's an interesting question: What do we do next?
A one-year increase in a variety of existing taxes balances the state budget and pays for a laundry list of unnecessary spending for this fiscal year and leaves the next governor and legislature to solve for the long-term the conjoined issues of how much the people of Tennessee will be taxed, and how much the government will spend. It also leaves a question for the anti-income tax forces: What do we do now?
For three years, we have been on defense. The Sundquist administration and its pro-big government pro-income tax allies have been on offense, driving down the field in a series of grinding short-yardage plays. They fell perhaps a yard short of the end zone. The good news is the coach – Sundquist - is retiring, while the quarterback, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, has endangered the loyalty of his troops with his arrogance and his deceptive tactics. Some are suggesting the back-up (Frank Buck) get the starting role. Meanwhile, key running back Sen. Bob Rochelle may well be taken down for a loss in his re-election bid.
Soon we'll have a new coach – most likely one who campaigned against the income tax and for living within our means.
It's time our side stop playing defense and devise a plan for an all-out offensive against government waste and high taxes. While we are no longer threatened by an income tax, we remain subject to nearly two dozen various taxes and fees, none of which are capped and all of which combine in most years to produce more revenue than the state has budgeted to spend. And that surplus money – funds the Sundquist administration calls "unbudgeted dollars" – does get spent. The administration spends it without going through the constitutionally mandated process of the legislature passing a law appropriating it. Not only does that violate the state constitution, which says in Article 2, Section 24, "No public money shall be expended except pursuant to appropriations made by law," it sets a higher baseline on which the next fiscal year's budget is built.
SEE LINK FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE second article down What's next?