Nearly two-thirds of the jobs lost during the 1991-92 recession disappeared from just two states: California and New York. There are many factors behind these states' decline, but certainly it's no coincidence that both have among the highest tax burdens in the country. Boise, Idaho; Reno, Nevada; and Salt Lake City, Utah are three of the fastest growing cities in America. With the lure of very low taxes and a business-friendly regulatory climate, they are successfully cherry picking off of California's industrial base. California Gov. Pete Wilson's tax policies have done more for the prosperity of those cities than 1,000 economic development offices.
Then there is the economic revival in Michigan. Inheriting a $1.8 billion budget deficit four years ago, Engler spurned the Florio-Weicker-Wilson putting-taxes-first fiscal solution and took a chainsaw to the budget, carving out savings in every state program from welfare to arts subsidies. He also cut taxes--11 times in fact, including his recent controversial $1.1-billion property-tax cut. (See "Engler's Angle," August/September.) Those policies now appear to be paying off. Once derided as the epicenter of the rust belt, today Michigan has a lower unemployment rate (5.5 percent) than the national average for the first time since Ford introduced the Mustang convertible--in 1966. And the state is now debating what to do about this year's $300-million budget surplus.
Perhaps the single largest impetus for the sudden wave of tax-cutting frenzy for politicians is pure political survival. Since 1990, voters have ousted eight tax-raising governors at the polls. The election that sent political shock waves throughout state capitals nationwide was, of course, Christine Whitman's triumph over Jim Florio in New Jersey last November. Florio came to power in 1990 as the self- proclaimed anti-Reagan, pledging to replace supply-side doctrine with a new-age progressive populism. His agenda of combining soak-the-rich tax hikes with Robin Hood wealth-redistributing education and social welfare spending programs was greeted with worshipful applause in Washington and in the media. A month after his record $2.8-billion tax package passed, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo praised Florio as a "bold and instant national hero." He even received the annual JFK Profile in Courage award.
Christine Whitman's victory shattered the Florio delusion. Exit polls from that election revealed just how thoroughly voters had trounced Florio's progressive liberal vision: 60 percent of the electorate said they preferred "fewer government services with lower taxes," while only 33 percent said they wanted "more of both." But what is really discombobulating to the left is that as Whitman has made good on her ambitious tax-cutting agenda, her approval rating has soared to over 70 percent--even as her "right-wing, supply-side agenda" is reviled with almost daily regularity in TheNew York Times and New Jersey newspapers. So popular is her tax-cutting program that now Whitmanomics is being copy-catted in GOP gubernatorial campaigns in Connecticut, New York, and a handful of other states. Whitman, a housewife by trade, is even seriously discussed as a vice-presidential candidate.
The accomplishments of Whitman, Engler, and other tax-cutting governors are impressive. But the real revolutionaries transforming state politics in America today are ordinary, unelected citizens like Douglas Bruce. They are relying on grass-roots direct democracy to permanently change the way states do business. While a popular politician's legacy can be quickly dismantled once he's gone, the latest wave of populist anti-tax ballot initiatives could foil the tax-raising efforts of teachers, unions, Naderites, and other pro- spending lobbies for many years to come.
Consider Montana, which is well on its way to ensuring that the taxman is held at bay for the foreseeable future. This November, there are three tax-related initiatives on the ballot. It all started when a first-ever state sales tax plan was put up for public vote in a special election in June 1993. The legislature sneakily passed a $73-million income tax hike that would go into effect if the sales tax were defeated--a virtual certainty according to the polls.
Not only was the sales tax defeated 75-25, but 20 percent of Montana's voters signed petitions to suspend the $73-million "blackmail tax" and put it, too, to a public vote this November. Public sentiment is running high in favor of repeal, though Rob Natelson, the law professor leading the petition drive, has been labeled a "tax dodger" by the Montana Education Association, and one Republican legislator has threatened to introduce legislation to eliminate the law school where Natelson teaches.
Two other tax-limitation measures are on Montana's ballot. CI-66 would require voter approval for any new or increased state tax; CI-67 would require a two-thirds supermajority of the relevant lawmakers to pass any new or increased state or local taxes and fees or to exceed the previous budget's level of spending. While there is some disagreement among anti-tax activists as to whether it is wiser to rely on voters' discipline (as CI-66 would) or politicians' discipline (as CI-67 would), both measures enjoy wide public support. Thus, both are likely to pass, giving double protection against the expansion of state government in Montana.
Passing such ballot initiatives tilts the political playing field in the taxpayers' direction. Before enacting the "It's Time" supermajority initiative in 1992, the Arizona legislature had raised taxes eight times in nine years. "But these days," boasts taxpayer advocate Sydney Hoff Hay, one of the principal sponsors of It's Time, "the legislators don't even bother to propose new taxes." Arizona Gov. Symington agrees. "The little secret [of the supermajority requirement] is that my income tax cuts are pretty much irreversible," he says. Government in Arizona will be ratcheted downward, not upward.
The supermajority requirement makes it difficult for state lawmakers to tax even the most demonized industries: tobacco companies, big oil, utilities, and the like. Says ATR's Grover Norquist: "Any industry that's large enough to be worth looting probably has the political clout to muster the necessary one-third- plus-one votes of the legislature to inoculate themselves from tax hikes."
Supermajority vote requirements aren't a fail-safe protection against higher taxes, of course. Pete Wilson was able, after all, to wrangle the two-thirds votes he needed out of the California legislature to secure his $7-billion 1990 tax hike.
Still, the political establishment views anti-tax ballot initiatives with a combination of fear and loathing. Public-employee unions, school boards, lobbyists, and even local chambers of commerce are mobilizing to defeat these measures. Their defense strategy is one of containment: Spare no expense to defeat the tax initiatives wherever and whenever they appear on the ballot.
In Florida, the Tax Cap Committee is sponsoring four amendments, probably the most ambitious anti- tax effort in any state this year. The two most controversial would require taxpayer approval for new and increased taxes passed by the legislature and would require a two-thirds popular vote for any constitutional amendments that impose a new tax. Opponents are attacking the messenger rather than the message. Nearly 90 percent of the Tax Cap Committee's finances are alleged to have come from U.S. Sugar Corporation, a firm that was the target of a proposed amendment--since struck down by the state Supreme Court--seeking to impose a tax on sugar to fund pollution abatement in the Everglades. Thus, The Miami Herald suggested that the hidden motivation behind the two-thirds vote requirement to impose new taxes by constitutional amendment is to "derail efforts to clean-up the Everglades."
Tax Cap chairman Dave Biddulph objects that this charge is "blatantly false," noting an Everglades cleanup bill has already been passed by the legislature and signed by the governor this year. He further explains that government regulations make it very difficult and expensive for citizens to get initiatives on the ballot. "We knew from all the experience that if you don't end up with some money some place along the line, it never is going to happen," Biddulph says. (The proposed amendment to tax big sugar also received most of its money from an out-of-state multimillionaire commodities trader.)
Despite the large amount of funding from U.S. Sugar, this is, in many ways, a genuine grass-roots political movement. Tax Cap chairman Dave Biddulph emphasizes that his organization existed before U.S. Sugar Corporation realized that it could be a strategic ally. Tax Cap has 9,000 individual financial contributors, and nearly a million Floridians have signed the Tax Cap ballot petition. One such taxpayer asked petitioners, "Is there anything I can sign to keep from paying taxes at all?" He later said, "I'm just fed up with taxes eating up more than half of everything I make. I can either get in a boat and sail away or I can do something to protest."
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
Trackback| 1.17.10 @ 9:53PM
credit repair california, on credit repair california, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
nfl jerseys|11.17.10 @ 3:12AM|#
xhfhc
منتدى العرب|3.9.11 @ 8:58PM|#
Thank you