Fighting tax-and-spendoholics is like playing Wack-A-Mole at the arcade. You knock them down, only to find they pop right back up. The lesson? We have to move faster and hit harder.
Last legislative session, taxpayers were successful in stopping tax-and-spendoholics from increasing the taxes to fund further boondoggle spending on more light-rail and other mass transit pork (the only thing “mass†is the cost – mass transit fails to actually relieve congestion, dollar for dollar). But, hey, those trains are fun at Disney World…
The chief cheerleader in the Texas House was State Rep. Fred Hill (R-Richardson), who also, ahem, distinguished himself by killing property tax appraisal reform AND voting to kill a $2.5 billion property tax cut. Yes, that is an “R†after his name…
Well, the tax-and-spendoholics are vowing to push their tax increase again, but even harder. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting that the grow-government guys have started “Texans for Transit†which will campaign and lobby you to increase your sales taxes to fund their budget-busting ways. (Texans for Transit… They should call themselves “Spenders for More Taxes.†Something tells me their “campaign†will somehow neglect to mention how much more taxes you’ll cough up if you support their program.)
One of those people leading the charge for higher taxes is quoted in the paper as saying he wants people to donate to his cause. “We need a staff. We’re going to raise some funds. We’re going to get serious.”
While the initial proposal would only apply to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, cities around the state are licking their chops at the possibility of getting in on the free tax-increase action. They can use the money-sucking, results-avoiding “mass transit†smoke screen to shift monies and grow bureaucracies in other ways.
And if anyone questions them? Well, they can say you are against progress (why are old-fashioned street cars with a new name considered progress?), or mean (yep, it’s mean to ask that government not waste money and let people keep their hard-earned dollars), or in the pockets of mysterious “big business†who inexplicably don’t want people to ride trains around town.
(DISCLOSURE: TFR has never received a penny in contributions from anyone involved in the “mass transit†fights. We fight it because it is bad policy, economically and otherwise. That’s not to say we wouldn’t take their money – we just haven’t been offered any!)
