Monday, June 22, 2009
Politics / Woods Kim McMillan: the Thinking Voters' Candidate (So That's At Least 3%)
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 2:22 PM
McMillan had to do a little tap dancing when Gold brought up that pesky income tax issue. Dammit, how many times are reporters going to ask that question? McMillan keeps trying out new answers in the apparent hope that, by some miracle, one of them will satisfy someone, but it never works.
First, she said she voted for the income tax while in the state House, not because it's the progressive, fair way to fund state government, but only because she represented Clarksville, which suffers as a border city from people crossing into Kentucky to escape our absurdly high sales tax.
But now, if she were governor, she said, she would represent the whole state, which doesn't need an income tax, which she opposes now anyway. Get it?
Then, as if to persuade people she's not really a complete idiot, she said tax alternatives need to be reviewed and considered. "You have to go back and look to see if the current way is working or if there is a better way," she said. Oops! Tennessee Politics 101: Never admit you're thinking about a better way to do anything.
To Gold, McMillan trotted out an all-new response. Yes, she said, she voted for "tax reform." (That's tricky! No one will ever figure out she's talking about the income tax.) And she only did that because the alternative was a $1 billion tax increase. But of course, now she's against it, meaning tax reform, or the income tax, or whatever. What about the future?
On what else can be done to reform the tax system in Tennessee: "What we have to do is be willing to look at other ways that we can structure our tax liability. What we learned in 2002 is that the people of Tennessee are not ready to change the tax structure--they seem satisfied with the tax structure we have." It's important for the next governor to "look outside the box" in order to increase the sales tax base. We have to have that discussion and we have to bring people in so that everyone can be a part of that discussion, not just 132 people in Nashville who vote on it.
We don't know, that still sounds a little squishy to Pith. Is thinking outside the box as bad as thinking about a better way? It's still thinking. That's problematic.
Comments (3)
Showing 1-3 of 3
Thinking women always "think outside the box" and color there too. They have to to change the status quo. McMillan is a great and refreshing choice for Tennessee. We are just lucky to have someone like her running for Governor. Just look at the rest of the choices regardless of party: what is there central commonality?
like
dislike
I'm not necessarily Kim McMillan's biggest fan. But your summary of goldni's post and what goldni actually posted are two very different things.
What Ilissa said was that McMillan was "charismatic and progressive". After reading the blog post, I came away with a much more favorable view than what you suggested.
But at least we know where you stand.
For what it's worth, I have been waiting over a year and have not yet seen a substantive policy position. In this way, McMillan is like Bill Haslam, but with less money and more legislative experience.
