FLYER Editorial :
Both 4th District congressman Van Hilleary, the presumed Republican
front-runner for governor , and ex-Nashville mayor Phil Bredesen, regarded as
a prohibitive favorite among the Democrats, have done their best -which is to
say, their worst- to prevent the Tennessee legislature from dealing with a
state fiscal crisis that is on the edge of disaster.
In the last week or so there have been fresh signs that the legislature
might actually hazard a long overdue solution to a revenue shortfall which is
heading toward the two-billion-dollar mark. For three years legislators have
dithered and ducked their duty as emergency funds were raided and basic state
services – notably including education -were cut to the bone. The state House
of Representatives made it clear that it would not approve any further
increase in the state’s already oppressively high sales tax. The Senate
contains members who have held the line against an income tax. And
special-interest lobbyists have prevented substantial revenue solutions of
any other kind.
Finally, it began to appear that both legislative chambers of the General
Assembly might agree on a mild, “flat-tax” version of an income tax. Such was
the word tentatively passed last week on Capitol Hill in Nashville and
reinforced later in the week on the grounds of the Covington Country Club,
where throngs of influential politicians gather annually for House Speaker
Jimmy Naifeh’s “Coon Supper.”
But that was before Messrs. Hilleary and Bredesen butted in. In their
gubernatorial campaigns so far, both – no doubt influenced by intense and
highly organized propaganda campaigns overseen by radio talk-show hosts and
others -had taken stands against a state income tax. Both were undoubtedly
mindful that a virtual riot whetted up by income-tax opponents brought state
government to a panicky standstill last July and forced the emergency use of
tobacco-settlement funds merely to provide for minimum levels of state
services. Even the use of those one-time funds, however, did not prevent
draconian cuts forced upon Governor Don Sundquist in the areas of state
parks, education spending, and health-care.
As Sundquist, an advocate of tax reform, said at Covington the other
day, he felt vindicated in that even longstanding opponents of revenue
adjustment had admitted the urgency of the moment and had begun to come
around. Hence, the pending flat-tax vote.
Enter Hilleary and Bredesen, each of whom released statements this week
that he would seek to “repeal” a state flat tax if one were to be passed by
the General Assembly this year. Nothing could have been better calculated to
undercut the last-ditch efforts of the governor and legislative leaders to
avert the gathering financial catastrophe.
Hilleary, at least, can point to a substantial number of his partymates
who are adamantly opposed to a state income tax. Bredesen can boast of no
such groundswell among state Democrats. Both men come off as unacceptably
opportunistic. Whatever their personal convictions, each could have – and
should have -declined to interfere with the legislative process under way.
We do not endorse in election races, but we would be remiss not to point
out that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Henry, while opposing an
income tax, too, has been open-minded enough not to rule it out. Democrat
Randy Nichols has been sufficienctly brave to campaign in favor of an income
tax, while another Democrat, Charles Smith, has accused Bredesen and Hilleary
of “pandering” and has promised to make no comments of his own on the
legislature’s ongoing deliberations.
Illustrations, if you will, of the difference between statesmanship and
demagoguery.
(Care to respond? Write mailonthefly@aol.com.)
