Republicans may be racists,
as new Democratic Party chair Chip Forrester says, but Forrester supports a state income tax, according to the GOP's Bill Hobbs. Hah! Back at ya, Chip. The Hobbs press release follows:
TN GOP Thanks Tennessee Democrats for Reminding State Where Party Stands on Income Tax
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Republican Party will continue to oppose
creation of a state income tax even though the Tennessee Democrat Party
has just elected a new chairman whose idea of "change" is the state
taking more of it out of your pocket via an income tax.
In 1999, as a member of his party's executive committee, new TNDP
chairman Chip Forrester voted for a resolution calling for creation of
a state income tax of 2.5 percent, to raise an additional $2 billion
for a state government that had already proven unwilling to live within
its means.
By contrast, the Tennessee Republican Party came out firmly and
unequivocally against the proposed state income tax in 1999 - and has
remained staunchly opposed to it.
"The Tennessee Democrat Party for years has tried to hide its
pro-income tax stance, knowing that most Tennesseans, including many of
their own voters, oppose the tax and believe the state's budget
problems are caused by too much spending, not by too little taxes,"
said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican
Party.
"By choosing as chairman some who advocated for and voted for a state
income tax, the leadership of the Tennessee Democrat Party has done the
people of Tennessee a service: they have clarified for all to see that
the Tennessee Democrat Party wants an income tax. When Chip Forrester
and the liberal candidates he will recruit to run for the state
legislature promise 'change,' what they really will be planning is a
return to pushing ideas that Republicans and most Tennesseans rejected
a decade ago."