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THE POWER TO DESTROY
Tennesseans honk for freedom
Massive revolt at state capitol stops new income-tax plan
By Patrick Poole
� 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
NAHSVILLE, 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 last 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 today 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 last night, car
horns continued to blare and traffic remained at a standstill.
One anonymous protestor at yesterday'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?"
Patrick S. Poole is a regular contributor to
WorldNetDaily.
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