Dan Baker wrote:
>
> ... we are ... 49th in the nation in total tax revenues collected per
> capita (we are, by the way, 33rd in per capita income)?

Is this supposed to be a bad thing?  I love living in a low-tax state.
I wish Tennessee were 50th in taxes per capita rather than only 49th.

It's not that Tennessee isn't taking in, and spending, more money than
ever before.  From 1990-97 total state expenditures increased 38.4%,
adjusted for inflation ... the 11th largest *increase* in spending of
the 50 states.  From 1992-98, Tennessee population (plus inflation) grew
24.7% while state revenues grew by over twice that much (54.5%).  These
yearly increases in state revenues and spending have continued to exceed
the rate of population growth and inflation ... this despite the fact
that Article II, Section 24 of the Tennessee Constitution states that
"in no year shall the rate of growth of appropriations from state tax
revenues exceed the estimated rate of growth of the state's economy...."

Our state budget shortfall has arisen not from a lack of revenues but
from *huge increases in spending* over the past several years.  It is
unfortunate from UTC's point of view that most of those increases have
not been in the area of education.  (Rather, the lion's share has gone
to that mismanaged, failed experiment in socialized medicine known as
TennCare.)  Bluntly put, our state doesn't have a revenue problem, it
has a spending problem.  We *may* not be spending enough on education
(or perhaps we are just not spending existing funds as effectively as
possible), but we *are* spending far too much in other areas.

I suggest that anyone moved to write his or her legislators regarding
the current state of affairs might concentrate on calling for spending
reform rather than requesting euphemistically-termed "tax reform" which,
of course, is just "tax increases" and/or "new taxes" in disguise.  You
might also suggest that they read what the state constitution has to say
about growth of appropriations.

Just my $0.02 (plus 8.25%) worth.

Joe Dumas