Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Politics As Legislature Convenes, Liberals Protest Ban on Income Tax
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:16 AM
A little band of liberals threw what they called a rally this morning to protest the proposed state constitutional ban on an income tax in Tennessee. As lawmakers mingled with their lobbyist friends in the halls of Legislative Plaza before the opening of this year's session, the protesters were outside making all the usual logical arguments for junking our antiquated, unfair system of taxation in favor of one that forces the wealthy to pay more.
The Senate voted for the anti-income tax resolution last year, and the House is almost certain to do it this session. Then if the legislature adopts it again by a two-thirds majority in the next General Assembly, it will go on the ballot for voter approval in the 2014 elections.
In 2002, a state income tax won 45 votes in the House. It drew rowdy, horn-honking protests to the Capitol, and politicians in both parties who made the mistake of supporting the tax regretted it later. The state Supreme Court has ruled three times — most recently in 1964 — that the constitution already prohibits an income tax. But the state attorney general issued an opinion in 1999 saying the tax was permissible. Income tax opponents—i.e., nearly everyone in state government—say the constitutional amendment is needed to resolve the issue.
Comments (11)
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THUNK!!!! Slamming the door shut in 2014. I am so excited to read that the specter of the counter-taxation of envy will soon be forever out-of-bounds in Tennessee. Thank you Jeff for keeping us up to date with this exciting legislation.
Its going to be a GREAT year!
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Just think of how onerous the burden would be if dumbassery in our state were taxable.
Good one Emmett Flatus! You are hilarious! Anyways, since libtards love income taxes so much, why doesn't the General Assembly pass a law that creates an income tax haven in East Nashville so we can tax the crap out of those people?!? I've proposed before making East Nashville a "Gay Zone" and also a "Muslim Extremist Zone" where they can build their mosques! We can let all the libtards live in their little utopian socialist experiment there and leave the rest of us God-fearing conservatives alone!
This is a lost cause. I also agree that the state constitution clearly already outlaws a state income tax. I have never understood whay the Attorney General opined otherwise. (AG opinions are just that: opinions. They do not carry the force of law.) A state income tax, if enacted--and it won't be--would still have to clear the courts. And the courts have repeatedly ruled that it is unconstitutional. A new constitutional amendment is not needed, but we are having one of some sort every governor's election to be sure and punch some kind of teabagger hot button and get them to the polls.
Not to say that an income tax wouldn't be a more fair system than this regressive over-dependence on the sales tax and property tax. The irony of the horn-honking morons was that they would actually have come out better with an income tax, while those pulling their puppet strings (gazillionaire Lee Beaman, for instance, who was driving around honking his dealership model and the highly-paid radio blowhards) continue to make out like bandits at the expense of their loyal, if dumb, foot soldiers.
The problem with an income tax is that, while it would start off at an innocuous 2-3%, it would no doubt be raised in a short time to 5-6%. The sales tax may go down for a while, but it would soon come back at levels similar to those today. Same for property taxes. The Hall Tax (on investment income) will never go away. So I fear we will have higher taxes and little to show for it in terms of better services and more money in state coffers because no matter what the revenue levels, government spends more than it takes in.
Actually, Tennessee doesn't spend all that much more than it takes in, ethden. In fact, Tennessee has the lowest per capita debt of any U.S. state at $773 per capita (2009 figures)...and lower by a helluva margin, too. That's because, contrary to the BS spewed by anti-tax groups, Tennessee is a remarkably well-managed state and has been, historically. We have the 7th best funded public pension in the country, and we always balance our budget, even if we have to use non-recurring funds to do. What we don't have is much in the way of services, but hey, you get what you pay for. Tennessee's biggest fiscal issue, if you truly believe in living within your means, is the fact that it's a pretty big pig at the federal trough, receiving over $10,000 per capita in federal funding (2009 figures). We would not be able to balance the budget, were it not for all that federal money pouring into the state.
Damn, Min. Of course we could balance the budget with no federal gifting. Spending could be further reduced, the economy would improve... who knows we might have more money in the coffers..
That is applicable to Washington I might add.
@Min: Now how do you suppose the federal government got that $10,000 per capita to pore into the state? Hint: it wasn't from "overburdened taxpayers" who don't pay federal income taxes.
"Spending could be further reduced, the economy would improve..."
If that was really the case, Tennessee wouldn't currently have the tenth highest unemployment rate and the eleventh highest rate of people in poverty in the country.
"Now how do you suppose the federal government got that $10,000 per capita to pore into the state?"
They got it from the blue states, gast. It's a huge wealth redistribution scheme, from which the red states inordinately benefit. I thought everyone knew that.
