March 23, 2004

A Coalition

Today the State Senate Judiciary Committee will be meeting at 3:30pm. On their agenda is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights bill sponsored by Senator Jim Bryson. If you support this bill, be sure to email all of the committee members urging them to vote for this bill.

Yesterday, I posted an article regarding a poll taken by the Kansas Taxpayer Bill of Rights Coalition. I stated that Tennessee should probably build a similar coalition. Bill Hobbs hits upon that theme today urging that we do just that.

What would a coaltion do? It would provide a unified voice for Tennesseans who support passage of a TaBOR amendment in this state. The opposing forces have such a unified voice with the Tennesseans for Fair Taxation. Everytime the news media does a story about taxation or bills affecting taxation (and what comes out of your pockets), they go to that group which provides a single voice of opposition.

Tennessee has several wonderful groups (TNTaxRevolt.org, Oak Ridge Accountability Project, etc.) as well as several independent people and websites (BillHobbs.com, Senator Bryson, Tax Free Tennessee, etc.) that can join together as one unified voice on this one important issue.

This would not be a merger, but a simple coalition. A way to present the concept of TaBOR in a unified, simple message. A group to provide a point of contact for the media on issues of TaBOR. A way to provide polling data showing Tennessean's support for TaBOR (which by ourselves we can not do). A way to provide a single voice against the propaganda of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation.

Bill Hobbs says that a coalition can't be built overnight, and he's exactly right. However, it needs to be done. Whether the TaBOR amendment passes today or not, we need a unified voice to work toward the goal of bringing accountability to our state government.

As I said yesterday...let's do that.

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