Posted on 05/25/2002 6:03:51 AM PDT by GailA
Income tax dead? Alive? Sure is, say foes, fans
By Jim Balloch, News-Sentinel staff writer May 25, 2002
Pro- and anti-income tax groups are in just as much disagreement over what will happen next as as they are over what should happen.
"We think there is still a good shot this year, but if we have to wait until next year, we will still be here," John Stewart, board member for the pro-income tax group Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, said Friday.
"It's going to be very close, but like (House Speaker Jimmy) Naifeh said, we have come too far to turn back now."
But Lloyd Daugherty, chairman of Tennessee Conservative Union, said the best chance for an income tax may have come and gone.
A proposal for a 4.5 percent flat-rate tax fell five votes short Wednesday of the 50 required for approval in the House. The vote was 45 yes, 49 no after four representatives switched from voting no to abstaining.
"We still don't believe they have the votes in the House or in the Senate," Dougherty said. "With Don Sundquist leaving office, and Naifeh's speakership in jeopardy because of his hanging so many members out to dry over this issue, next year will be an even more difficult time" to get an income tax approved.
Even if an income tax is passed, Daugherty said, "We will immediately file a lawsuit challenging it. So the issue is not going to go away."
Meanwhile, about a dozen TFT demonstrators gathered Friday at Broadway and Woodland Avenue, holding signs thanking Knox County Reps. Joe Armstrong and Harry Tindell for voting in favor of a state income tax.
"Their votes were courageous ones and absolutely right, and we wanted them to know that we understand what a gutsy thing it was to do," Stewart said.
He said many passing motorists gave thumbs-up signs. "Some chose to display a digit other than their thumb, but this is a free country," Stewart said.
The state income tax proposal defeated Wednesday would have exempted $15,000 of income for single people and $30,000 for married couples, and would have temporarily increased the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent.
Jim Balloch may be reached at 865-342-6315 or balloch@knews.com.
May 24, 2002
Lawmakers say TennCare overhaul must precede tax
by Karin Miller Associated Press
NASHVILLE -- Some of the 53 House members who wouldn't vote for an income tax this week said Thursday they might later, if convinced improvements are being made in TennCare and other government programs.
"I have had all the promises about TennCare I can take; I want to see some action," said Rep. Frank Buck, D-Dowelltown.
Reps. John Tidwell, D-New Johnsonville, and John Mark Windle, D-Livingston, also said they want to see TennCare changes before they consider voting for House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh's proposed 4.5 percent income tax plan.
It was defeated Wednesday, but Naifeh hasn't given up and could call for another vote next week if he can convince enough legislators to change their minds. He needs 50 of the 99 members to approve it and send it to the Senate; 45 voted for the plan.
Tidwell said he didn't know why the speaker expected him to vote for the bill.
"I told him I was conditional and would help with the state's problem, but I would not vote for it without reforms of business as usual. ... I can't go home and say we did this without reforming TennCare."
John Tighe, the deputy finance commissioner who oversees TennCare, said he would meet with any legislator who wants to discuss changes proposed for the $5.7 billion federal-state program that provides health care coverage to 1.4 million poor or otherwise uninsured Tennesseans.
"Without tax reform TennCare doesn't exist, so it's a very important priority for us to work with legislators," he said.
Buck said he "would feel more comfortable if I saw some bills pass through the House and Senate. I want to see it mandated that they get a computer program up and an auditing procedure so that we don't have people with $451,000 in the bank who don't pay premiums."
Tighe said the federal government is expected to approve changes to TennCare beginning July 1 that would address such concerns.
For example, he said, all applicants will have to go to their local Department of Human Services offices, "which are used to collecting information about people's assets and income and requiring them to bring documentation about all kinds of income, not just pay stubs but interest income as well."
The woman mentioned by Buck is currently under investigation by the TennCare fraud unit, Tighe said.
He agrees that medical eligibility requirements need to be tighter. Right now it's easy to get a letter from an insurance company asserting that a person has a medical condition making him uninsurable, which would make him eligible for TennCare. Under the new process, individuals would have to provide documents from doctors and go through an independent review.
"I believe the new design going forward has a lot of fixes," Tighe said. "Everybody ought to know these changes will tighten up the program and put more responsibility on individuals, so it will not be an entitlement."
Some legislators have suggested cutting TennCare to help the state out of its budget hole, but most agree that won't solve the problem.
The state faces a $480 million shortfall for the year ending June 30. It needs about $800 million in new tax income to fund the same level of services again next year, and $1.4 billion to fully fund Gov. Don Sundquist's proposed $9.6 billion budget.
"The bottom line is we just can't cut it out of TennCare," said Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland.
Newton said Bradley County officials are so concerned about the Legislature's inability to solve state government's financial difficulties that they may close Blue Springs Elementary School and move the students to other schools to save money. He said he planned to attend a meeting about that Saturday.
"I will not be a part of taking the state down and closing school doors," he said, adding that he planned to ask his constituents what they want him to do.
"We've got two options: an income tax or cut everything. The services tax, much as I'd like to push it, doesn't have the votes," he said of his bill to expand the state sales tax to services and items that are now exempt.
Sen. Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, said he also believes there are only two options: the income tax or some form of the Downsizing Ongoing Government Services (DOGS) budget that would require about $800 million in cuts.
He doesn't expect the 45 House members who voted for the income tax to change their position and there's no likelihood that 50 of the 53 people who voted against it would agree on any alternative.
"I'm still optimistic Naifeh will convince his members to vote for the bill. The stakes are certainly very high next Wednesday," he said. "I believe the Senate would have passed it if the House had; and I believe the Senate still will pass it if the House does."
The income tax bill is HB2957/SB2646.
Contact info:
800-449-8366 or 615-741-3011 or
NOTE THE GEN ASSEMBLY WEB SITE IS DOWN
Folks to target:
Ralph Cole (R)
Ron Davis (R)
Stancil Ford (R)
Steve McDaniels (R-chair of House GOP)
Raymond Walker (R)
Zane Whitson (R) co-sponsor of benedict naifeh's IT
Keith Westmoreland(R)
Chris Newton (R) co sponsor of expand sales tax to services
Frank Buck (D)
George Farley (D)
John Tidwell(D)
John Mark Windle(D)
5/25/02
TennCare In the Budget Mess Lawmakers will face tough questions from voters this weekend about the income tax.
Some representatives who voted against the tax blame the TennCare for the budget mess.
It is the program some lawmakers, gubernatorial candidates and talk radio hosts say holds the key to the state's budget crisis.
Even TennCare officials admit there are problems.
"Changes are needed TennCare is a great demonstration project we've learned a few things along the way and as we've learned we've made changes to the program," said Lola Potter, TennCare spokeswoman.
Take a look at the numbers. TennCare now gets nearly 20 percent of the state's entire budget.
Last year the state spent more than $1.5 billion state dollars on the health care program. TennCare insures one out of every four people in the state.
"I've heard all the promises out of TennCare I want to hear I want to see results," said Rep. Frank Buck, (D) Dowelltown.
Buck and others voted against the income tax saying he wants random audits of TennCare recipients.
"We felt like we could reorganize the government make some changes around and save some money," Buck said. A recent state audit indicated 130,000 TennCare recipients list post office boxes for their address. Twenty thousand lived out of state. Of those out of state, TennCare cut off all but 9,000.
"We believe we've made changes to do that. Now we're monitoring who is out of state," Potter said.
Many lawmakers say that should have happened long ago. The Comptroller said despite the waste, TennCare has saved the state $2 billion.
"Even if you did away with TennCare completely and still had a Medicaid program, you're going to be spending more money if you did that," Potter said.
Even with this year's budget mess, state officials say even with TennCare reform, all the budget problems will not be solved.
Is Governor Playing Hardball With Prisons
Is the governor playing hardball in the wake of the income tax vote?
The governor's office said some prisons would have to shut down if the budget crisis is not solved.
One prison that could be closed is Brushy Mountain Penitentiary in Morgan County.
County executive Tommy Kilby received a call from the governor's office Friday afternoon. He believes Brushy Mountain was chosen because it's in the district of Representative John Mark Windell, who is considered a swing vote on the state income tax.
The governor's office denies that.
The county executive said shutting down the prison would be a major blow to the economy.
The official announcement of prison closings is expected next week.
Iowa is facing a $200 Million shortfall,, Our legislature is going back into Special Session on Tuesday to make additional spending cuts. I heard an ad on the radio a half hour ago, urging people to go to the Capitol in Des Moines on Tuesday to PROTEST the spending cuts.
Iowa already has an income tax, and a 5% sales tax on most things except groceries and prescription drugs. It will be the first time in my memory that citizens have protested in favor of more taxes.
Under the proposal they will vote on Tuesday is a program to furlough state employees one day a month for most of the year.
exactly the point here in TN. no tax increase of any kind until the budget black holes are fixed, tenncare being the first. first boss hogg wants to close the parks, then the schools, then call out the goons on lawful protesters and children, and now open the prisons. bring it on; people here have a long memory and he and his sycophants are toast.
This is a direct result of the liberals "soak the rich" scheme. As far as I can tell, over 50% of the people in the U.S. are somehow living off some kind of government "benefit". This includes government workers and SS receipients. The "poor" do not pay income taxes. If the "poor" happen to work, they do pay FICA and Medicare taxes, but they get back AFDC, Earned Tax credits, welfare payments..housing subsidies, free medical care...etc,etc which amounts to a lot more than they pay in.
So....it makes sense to me that those on the dole would protest any proposal that would lower taxes...or not vote for anyone that promises to lower their taxes...since they are living on taxes.
It is for this reason that I have concluded that we are screwed as a free nation.
You cannot be free as long as someone else has a prior claim on your paycheck.....and as things stand right now, our government of the "poor" by the "poor" and for the "poor" have that claim.....the "poor" are the "majority" and as you know...the "majority rules" in the U.S
.....we are screwed!
KEEP YOUR POWDER DRY!.......B.O.
Next will be Police, Fire, library's...all of which (in their minds) is less important than their pet socialist project "Tenncare".
There is no defense against the Washington Monument ploy. All you can do is grit your teeth and turn the bastards out of office. But... don't assume that the new crop of bastards will be more trustworthy. History speaks to the opposite effect. All you can hope is that they're educable, and that they'll draw the correct lesson from their predecessors' fates.
Good luck, Tennessee.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
I'm handing out business cards made up of plain copy paper made with my Boarderbund print shop program, that has the 800 and 615 number as well as the URL on one side and the list of the GOP benedict arnolds and the 4 present voters on the other. You'd be surprised how many folks oppose the IT and don't know how to contact their lawmakers. I especially make sure smokers find out about the planned 30 cent cig tax hike.
I'm thinking about standing up on the street corner with the guy that sells the Sunday paper and handing out even more of them tomorrow.
My voice is just about shot because of all the screaming I did Wed.
Refute that...
applicants will have to go to their local Department of Human Services offices, "which are used to collecting information about people's assets and income and requiring them to bring documentation about all kinds of income, not just pay stubs but interest income as well."
WOW!, so these proposals are not only for income tax, but also PROPERTY TAX!
If one of us won the lottery and stopped working, we'd pay huge taxes the first year
when we EARNED it, PLUS HUGE TAXES EVERY FUTURE YEAR
until the money is ALL GONE!
The noisy 50% or so of citizens who pay little or no taxes, or worse, get money back. [They KNOW higher taxes won't fall on THEIR shoulders!]
That plus the non-productive segment of our population who actually get a direct paycheck from taxpayer sources.
Refute that...
That which I can't refute, I'll at least bump.
This jerk knows what he/she is saying, has chosen the words carefully, and understands the difference between "can't" and "won't". Chris should be barred for life from holding public office.
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