|
A
column recently published by Steven Sisson in the
Augusta Free Press included a quote from Grover
Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform:
"The heat is on the political establishment.
Their policies have failed miserably, and taxpayer
anger is coming to a boiling point."
I
initially thought that Mr. Norquist must have made this statement recently. Given the barrage of
tax and spend proposals coming from our elected
officials, the quote clearly applies to the
current predicament facing Virginia
taxpayers.
However,
Mr. Sisson advised that this particular quote comes
from an anti-tax pamphlet that was published some 12
years ago, back in 1992.
This
goes to show that when it comes to taxes, we
haven’t made much progress in more than a decade.
The government’s appetite for spending continues
to grow and the taxpayers get hit year-after-year
with new tax-increase proposals.
A
little over a year ago, the taxpayers of the two
most populous jurisdictions in Virginia
rejected a proposal to increase the sales tax.
Disregarding the voter’s wishes, Gov. Mark R. Warner
is now proposing tax hikes that made the 2002 sales
tax referendum look miniscule by comparison.
The
only way to end this insanity is to enact a Taxpayer
Bill of Rights (TABOR). Colorado
voters adopted such an initiative in 1992, which
limits the growth of most state revenue to inflation
plus population.
The
TABOR revenue limit was first exceeded in FY97,
resulting in a $139 million tax refund the following
year. The following year the refund was $563
million, and then grew to $758 million in FY99. Since
1997, taxpayers have received $2.32 billion in
refunds.
These
refunds included three permanent tax cuts, two
income tax reductions of approximately $430 million
in 1999 and 2000 as well as a sales tax reduction of
approximately $75 million in 2000.
Since
legislators appear helpless in controlling the
spending of taxpayers’ dollars, TABOR also
requires taxpayer approval to increase taxes. Since
1993 three ballot proposals to raise taxes were
considered — all failed. There were also two ballot
measures to increase indebtedness without a tax
increase, which passed.
Colorado’s TABOR limits spending because it prohibits
changes to limits that already existed when TABOR
was first enacted. The statutory limit is set to a
growth rate of no more than 6 percent, which applies to all
state general fund operating budgets. In
other words, it effectively makes a statutory
spending limit constitutional.
Contrast
that to what’s happening in Virginia. According to the Fairfax County Taxpayer Alliance
(www.fcta.org)
since the start of the "dot-com" bubble in
FY1998, state spending has grown by $4 billion more
than is needed to keep up with population and
inflation.
Had
we had enacted TABOR-like legislation in Virginia, that $4 billion would have been refunded to the
taxpayers instead of being used to fund a burgeoning
bureaucracy.
However,
even this growth in government spending hasn’t
satisfied our tax and spend politicians. Gov.
Warner is now proposing to raise taxes by $1 billion
and increase state spending by another 13 percent.
And
with all the competing tax-increase proposals
percolating in the state senate, Gov. Warner’s
proposed tax-increase may appear as the lesser of
two evils. Sen. John Chichester, R-Stafford, the
chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, has proposed tax increases
exceeding $2.5 billion a year.
Twelve
of 24 Republicans in the Senate have
signed as co-patrons to Chichester’s bill. These
senators are openly defying the
stated wishes of their Republican Party which passed
a resolution last year against tax increases.
In
contrast, Sen.
Ken Cuccinelli, R-Centreville, has introduced his own version of
TABOR (Senate Joint Resolution - SJ33). It proposes
to limit total appropriations in any fiscal year to
the preceding year's total appropriations plus a
percentage increase equal to the rate of inflation
plus a factor for population increases. It also
states that revenues raised in excess of this
formula, plus a one percent earmarked for the
Revenue Stabilization Fund, be refunded to
taxpayers.
Sen.
Cuccinelli’s bill would amend the Virginia
Constitution so that this provision cannot be easily
changed by future legislative assemblies. Del.
Tim Hugo, R-Clifton, has signed as a co-patron.
When
I talked to Sen. Cuccinelli about this bill, he told
me that given the extraordinary growth in government
spending, we must amend the Constitution to protect
working families from a continuous assault for
higher taxes. As he put it “tax increases are
budget cuts for families.”
Sen.
Cuccinelli advised “we simply can’t expect
government growth to outstrip personal income growth
year-after-year.” He rationalized that TABOR is
needed to bring fiscal discipline in Richmond.
If
you agree that TABOR is long overdue in our
Commonwealth to limit our out-of-control government
spending, call your legislators in Richmond
and ask them to co-patron SJ33.
--
February 2, 2004
|
