Tax increase
Lame duck governor wants sales tax increase. Or we’ll have to cut spending. A couple things: probably not a good idea to push since income tax is fresh on peoples’ minds. And any ZOMG! WE NEED MONEY OR WE’LL HAVE TO CUT SERVICES push, they always trot out state employees or police and fire departments as who to cut. But the money rarely goes there.
April 16th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Could this be why he is a lame duck.
April 16th, 2010 at 11:52 am
I would love to see a state pass a budget that specifies which programs will be defunded first when the money dries up.
April 16th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
What?? He didn’t threaten your children? He’s off the playlist. Usually, they threaten to cut school funds first.
April 16th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
This is actually a tactic called “Fire the Firemen”. It usually happens when a particularly onerous piece of budget increase or taxation is heavily opposed or doesn’t pass, the level of government responsible either before the vote on something, or after they don’t get their parcel tax increase trots out a bunch of firemen and says “because we didn’t get this tax increase I will have to fire these firemen and reduce fire services by X%” as a ploy to show us that somehow, if they din’t get a couple more million dollars then the budget that they have had for years previous to employ and provide for the services of basic safety in the community, firemen in this case, will have to be eliminated.
It is also commonly used with school teachers, road improvements, hospital care, or police services.
distilled to it’s essence, it’s some politician saying “If I don’t give me more of your money you are gonna be more likely to get hurt, and lose your stuff, your children may end up unemployable, your car may get damaged, and when you dial 911 no one will pickup”.
April 16th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Dial 911 that is a good one.
April 16th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Bredesen is term-limited. And I see a charge every month on my utility bill for “County Fire Protection” so pack that sales tax increase where the sun don’t shine.
And how come it’s always “PO-leece, fire, prisons” that are the first to lose funding, whereas “golf courses, parks and junkets” never see the cuts??
April 17th, 2010 at 12:11 am
Hmm…if we fire every state employee who works in the county where the state capital is located, we’d probably have a massive surplus in the budget.
April 17th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Let’s see, democrat lame duck governor demands republican legislature either 1)raise taxes, or 2) cut the salaries of 40,000 state employees (i.e., voters), all in an election year. I think it is safe to say that the legislature will pick door number 3)find other places in the budget to cut.