It's Time To Pay The Taxpayers

May 20, 2005

I read with interest recent news reports that said we in Tennessee are looking at a $272 million surplus because of unexpected excess sales tax revenue. They were telling us for years that we needed an income tax because the sales tax just didn't keep up with our needs. I remember during our state income tax fight a few years ago a parade of so-called experts who were paraded before the media warning us to abandon our dependence upon this “regressive” tax or surely face the dire consequences. That, we now see, was simply been a ruse to pass the state income tax.

 

Now the politicians are arguing over what to do with the extra money. One would think we would put it away for a rainy day. Forget that. The politicians in Nashville already have that cash spent. Legislators lined up at the trough as soon as the surplus was announced. Many are the very same politicians who have whined and complained for years that the sales tax on groceries is unfair, yet with this extra money we could completely eliminate the grocery tax for the remainder of the year. Instead they want to go on a spending spree for fear they'll never have the chance again.

 

Everyone knows one of the major roots of our financial woes is TennCare. I've applauded Governor Bredesen's efforts to “fix” TennCare. In the past, he has made some bold statements about removing some 323,000 people from the system. To date, that plan has not come to fruition. Now, he's planning to use part of the surplus to “shore up” TennCare. That's not fixing TennCare. It's merely perpetuating the eventual train wreck that we all know is just around the corner.

 

The number of citizens on Medicaid nationwide works out to one in ten. TennCare was designed to take the place of Medicaid. The TennCare average is one in four! Far too many people are on medical assistance in this state and the only solution is to boot those who don't qualify off the rolls. But, now that we're experiencing a surplus, the governor and the general assembly are taking the easy way out by just throwing good money after bad. A precious few in Nashville are willing to step up to the plate and lead on this issue.

 

One of the other root causes of our financial pickle is the illegal alien problem. They cost us untold hundreds of millions of dollars in extra education, healthcare and incarceration expenses. There's no telling how much more expendable income our state government would have were it not for illegal aliens yet the leadership in our state has been unwilling to do anything about it.

 

The particularly arrogant aspect of the recent revelation of a state surplus is the assumption that the money belongs to the government. It's not their money. It's our money. Obviously, the taxpayers have overpaid and are entitled to some of their money back. This could be in the form of a rebate check, which might prove to be costly to administer. At the very least, a reduction of taxes, even a temporary one, would not only be logical, it would be fair. That, I can assure you, has not even crossed the minds of those who now have a stranglehold on our state government.

 

We deserve better. The politicians talk about “investing” in all sorts of programs and pork they say are for the betterment of our state. How about we invest in our most precious resource – the taxpayers. I don't know about you but I'm not holding my breath.