feed icon

An Issue He Would Have Been Willing To Lose Over Had He Been Willing To Run

By Kleinheider Posted on July 19, 2009 at 5:58 pm

Doug Horne, who eschewed a gubernatorial run championing the income tax, talks about his efforts to push the issue:

For Tennessee candidates looking for a losing issue, an income tax isn’t a bad choice. The last governor to try it was Republican Don Sundquist, who failed to muster the votes but succeeded in riling up horn-honking protesters and anti-tax radio hosts.

But Horne believes he has a better approach. His three-pronged plan includes eliminating two taxes - the sales tax on food and the business franchise tax - and using a 2.5 percent flat tax on personal taxable income to establish an education trust fund. The idea is to offer an annual $4,000 scholarship to every Tennessee high school graduate, available for a maximum of four years and without any grade-point requirement. The scholarship could be used at public or private institutions in Tennessee, and excess proceeds from the Tennessee Lottery could then be used for K-12 education.

Horne said the plan would offer a great opportunity for every child in Tennessee to get a higher education, and would be a direct investment in the human capital of Tennessee. Asked about the political challenge, he said Sundquist came “really close to getting a broad-based tax, but what he didn’t have was a direct benefit like this.”

permalink

Comments

5 Responses to “An Issue He Would Have Been Willing To Lose Over Had He Been Willing To Run”

  1. JaStep writes
    July 19th, 2009 6:25 pm

    Haven’t McMillan and Kyle already voted for an income tax?

  2. sidney ames writes
    July 20th, 2009 7:34 am

    I have a great idea. Impose the Income Tax for TN on Democrats and not the Republicans. Ha, ha, ha. Take away a bunch of taxes and replace them with income tax. Ha, ha, ha. Better not take them away first. Better add one first and then take the others away. Cause once you take something away, you’ll never get the other one passed to implement. At least I won’t vote for it.

  3. Robert Young writes
    July 20th, 2009 10:22 am

    What part of NO INCOME TAX do you Democrats & Republicans not understand?

    Although he quickly switched to the Pro-TAX dark side after he won re-election, Former Governor Don Sundquist said it best:

    “You will hear from those who say we ought to preserve special breaks for some businesses and impose an income tax on working Tennesseans. That’s not tax relief; it’s not tax reform; it’s not tax simplification; and it’s not tax fairness. All an income tax does is raise the tax burden on Tennesseans and create a way to finance the easy and endless expansion of government. TENNESSEE DOES NOT NEED AN INCOME TAX.” -GOVERNOR DON SUNDQUIST.

    Tennessee did not need an Income Tax in 1999 when Gov. Sundquist said this and does not need one in 2009.

    Gov. Bredesen even agreed that Tennessee does NOT need an Income TAX. I am very surprised that Gov. Bredesen has not gone after an Income Tax because he pushed for an Income Tax (or some kind of a Tax on Income) on County Residents when he was Mayor of Metro-Nashville.

    End of line.

  4. C H Bates writes
    July 20th, 2009 5:44 pm

    Doug Horne was a loser in the past and he just proved he is still a loser and a DEMO to go with it.

    We do not need a income tax. It is the same issue that is served by someone hoping to catch people napping. Horne will find that he has opened up a can of worms that he cannot win with.

  5. TNCitizen writes
    July 20th, 2009 9:49 pm

    One-hundred years ago, on July 17, 1909, Sen. William E. Borah (R-ID) wrote, “The income tax is the fairest and most equitable of the taxes. It is the one tax which approaches us in the hour of prosperity and departs in the hour of adversity. Certainly, it will be conceded by all that the great expense of government is in the protection of property and wealth. There is no possible argument founded in law or in morals why these protected interests should not bear their proportionate burden of government.”

Leave a Reply




Partly Cloudy

Recent Comments

The Collective

The Latest from NashvillePost.com

Archives