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Tennesseans stage tax revolt Massive revolt at state
Capitol stops new income-tax plan
By Patrick Poole
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Police cars blockaded Tennessee state Capitol
entrances and troopers patrolled legislative hallways this week as the
state legislature found itself under siege by thousands of angry
taxpayers upset at a plan to implement a state income tax.
Tennessee is currently one of only nine states without a state income
tax. Opponents of the measure, which would assess a 5 percent tax on any
income above $100,000, are skeptical that legislators would maintain
that high an exemption threshold for very long.
As protestors began to gather outside the legislative chambers Monday
evening, several legislators were taken away by ambulance and
hospitalized for blood pressure and heart problems as tensions rose and
tempers flared.
By Tuesday morning, tax protestors were brandishing signs reading,
"Let's send them all to the ER!"
Trouble began brewing Friday evening as the state income tax
proposal emerged from a legislative conference committee considering the
state budget after local news shows had already aired.
Legislators supporting the income tax had hoped that a vote would be
taken on the proposal Saturday morning to avoid giving anti-tax groups
time to mount a repeat of the tax revolt that occurred last November,
when an earlier income-tax measure died as taxpayers besieged
legislative
offices with tens of thousands of calls and e-mails every hour.
But the hopes of income-tax supporters were dashed when two of
Nashville's competing talk radio stations, WLAC and WTN, joined forces
and served as the catalyst for opposition to the legislative proposal.
Speaking to WorldNetDaily and barely audible above the virtually
non-stop horn honking, WLAC's morning show host Steve Gill gestured to
the standstill traffic encircling the state Capitol and said, "Do you
hear that? That's the sound of freedom."
Phil Valentine, Gill's afternoon show counterpart, chided
legislators on-air for conducting most of the legislative discussion
regarding the state budget behind closed doors.
"If this is such good public policy, why are they afraid to do it in
public?" Valentine said.
While it appeared Monday that income-tax supporters had enough
votes to push the measure through both houses, support crumbled as the
tax protests grew.
"These legislators have received a rude awakening in the past few
days," said Darryl Ankarlo, morning drive time host for WTN. "They're
realizing that taxpayers are tired of politicians picking their pockets
at every turn."
Ankarlo and his WTN colleague, Dave Ramsey began broadcasting their
respective programs from a remote radio site located at the entrance of
the legislative plaza, where they could wave to supporters driving by.
They would regularly announce on-air the position of state legislators
on the income-tax proposal and provide telephone and e-mail information
for constituents to contact their representatives.
The effort to pass a state income tax is being led by Republican
Gov. Don Sundquist, who won two gubernatorial races handily in 1994 and
1998 after promising to prevent an income tax from ever being passed.
But less than three months after his 1998 re-election, Sundquist found
that a runaway budget, driven by the largest state Medicaid program in
the country, threatened to bankrupt the state. TennCare, the state's
Medicaid program, now covers one out of every four citizens in the state
and consumes one-quarter of the state's annual budget.
Rejecting calls to cut his proposed $18.1 billion budget, Sundquist
has threatened to withhold public works projects in legislators'
districts if they failed to go along with his plan. Sundquist is backed
by a coalition of liberal special interest groups, state contractors,
road builders and state
employee unions, who are pushing for the income tax to finance a 6
percent pay raise for the coming fiscal year.
One group, Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, is praising the current
tax proposal as the first step toward imposing a state income tax on the
whole population, not just those earning more than $100,000.
"We will continue to push forward until we achieve comprehensive tax
reform," said Nan Lloyd, a
Tennesseans for Fair Taxation spokesperson. The organization has even
posted an online tax calculator to tell families how much more they
would end up paying under various state income-tax schemes.
One national taxpayer group has jumped into the Tennessee tax fight.
Chad Cowan, director of
communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform
told WorldNetDaily that election promises made by Tennessee legislators
who vowed at election time that they would oppose the state income tax
need to be kept.
"The people of Tennessee have spoken, and they have said loudly and
clearly that they do not want a state income tax. The governor and
legislature would be wise to listen to them," Cowan said.
Americans for Tax Reform named Sundquist "Taxpayer Villain of the
Month" last November in response to his recommended state income-tax
plan and corresponding $400 million state spending increase. Sundquist's
income-tax effort was also panned recently by Steve Moore, a columnist
for "National Review," who wrote that he is "easily the worst governor
in America."
As a result of the daily tax protests, the income-tax proposal
appeared dead Tuesday night after the tax measure's chief legislative
supporter announced he was throwing in the towel. Both houses
subsequently referred the budget back to the conference committee
responsible for crafting a compromise. Committee members were given
explicit instructions to return yesterday with a bill
that would meet legislative (and voter) approval.
Legislators are working on a June 30 deadline, when the new fiscal
year will begin. Sundquist has threatened to veto any budget that does
not include an income tax, but only a simple majority vote in both
houses is needed to override the governor's veto. Most of the members in
both the House and Senate face re-election in November.
As word of the income tax's demise spread among the crowd gathered
at the state Capitol Tuesday night, car horns continued to blare and
traffic remained at a standstill.
One anonymous protestor at Tuesday's rally, who said that he had
taken the day off work and had driven three hours to come to Nashville,
spoke to WorldNetDaily as the crowd thinned and the sun began to set
over the Nashville skyline.
"This is a great victory for all Tennesseans," he said. "The people
spoke, and we forced our elected representatives to listen. Could
anything be more American?"
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