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“According to the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday, 41 percent of likely voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party Patriots. That compares to a 35 percent favorable rating for Democrats and 28 percent for the GOP.” - -   Newsmax

A principled handful of Maryland General Assembly Republicans have fought for a Taxpayer Bill of Rights (called TABOR) for some time in Annapolis.  Last February 20, we spelled out the background details in our “Maryland Republicans: Fiscal Reform, or Just Incumbency?”  - -

“For at least five years the Maryland General Assembly has had a Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) constitutional amendment before it. But Republican leaders did not make it a priority during the Ehrlich Interlude .

The various iterations of the Maryland TABOR provided that voters had to give a final sign-off (or not) on tax hikes approved by the General Assembly or local governments prior to their taking effect, and that state spending could not exceed population growth and inflation. (TABOR’s Maryland precursor was the Greenip-Mooney Return-the-Tax-Surplus Amendment of 2001 here.)

(Full disclosure: reporter Richard Falknor when a member, from 2000 to 2008, of the Maryland Taxpayers Association, Inc. organized for and advocated here a Maryland TABOR.)

Former delegate Herb McMillan put years of effort into the TABOR effort, as did another Maryland TABOR pioneer, state senator Alex Mooney.  But in an administration where enacting slots legislation was the driver, TABOR was not at the top of any Republican agenda.”

We explained - -

“Annapolis insiders know that these constitutional amendments will get on the Maryland ballot just the moment pigs get airborne.  So why go through the exercise?  To make a public point, we are told; to underline the Other Team’s fiscal irresponsibility over the years;  to highlight the taxing addiction of the O’Malley administration.

Fair enough as far as a TABOR is concerned. The proposed TABOR amendment should be kept before the public eye as the standard of how to do it right.”

Virginia and TABOR

The Virginia Institute for Public Policy published in 2005 Stephen Slivinski’s and Michael J. New’s  “The Case for a Virginia Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights” here. The authors declared - -

“The 1990s saw massive budget increases in Virginia: from 1990 to 2001, state spending grew at almost twice the rate of population growth plus inflation. This spending binge led to a massive $1 billion projected deficit in the state, which prompted calls for large tax increases. Yet, despite lawmakers’ claims that they were interested in fiscal control, the suggestions of the Wilder commission—which issued a report detailing over $1 billion in budget savings—were ignored, and the largest tax increase in Virginia history was signed into law.

The sad truth is that this did not have to happen. If Virginia lawmakers had resisted the temptation to spend so much money, the state would not have been in such dire fiscal straits. Despite the claims of lawmakers that they had been dealt a
bad hand by the national economic slowdown, the truth is that the problems were of their own making.

The time is ripe for consideration of a spending cap in Virginia. Modeled after the very successful Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights amendment in Colorado, a Virginia tax and expenditure limitation could control spending by holding it to the rate of population growth plus inflation.If such a limit had been in place since 1992, the Commonwealth of Virginia would have been able to avoid the deficit crunch.Indeed, the spending cap would have required the legislature to grapple with the need to reprioritize spending in the state budget and to cut unnecessary and wasteful programs.”

FCTA’s Foundational Fiscal Facts

The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance’s Arthur Purves produces understandable charts of how Commonwealth and Fairfax County programs have ballooned in excess of inflation and population growth. 

Virginians will find his results revealing, and his work perhaps an inspiration to do the same kind of number-crunching in their own jurisdictions.

And in the Virginia General Assembly . . .

This year Richmond-area delegate Manoli Loupassi introduced a constitutional amendment embodying TABOR expenditure principles, a measure approved by the House of Delegates, but which died before a Senate panel.  According to Dan Roem in the Gainesville Times, veteran conservative delegate Bob Marshall approaches right-sizing state government through “legislation designed to help Virginia spend money more efficiently.” Marshall explained that his “main goal for the General Assembly is ‘to get more for the money and the only way you’re going to do that is to scrutinize at close range,’ the way laws are being funded and implemented,” Roem reported.

TABOR Principles Today

Today the muscle of the Maryland and Virginia Tea Partiers is on full display.

There is an interim solution they can advance - - and for which they should insist on getting a fair hearing:

The spending restrictions of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) don’t need legislation or constitutional amendments to be followed. The General Assembly Republican caucuses can simply agree to abide by the guidelines of TABOR, resolving not to vote for any increase in spending that exceeds growth in inflation (CPI) and population - - - under governors of either party.

And the Tea Partiers can also guide local officials, especially those in the mega-counties such as Loudoun and Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s, to follow TABOR principles in their spending.

Stay tuned for a few more modest proposals distilled from a number of sources!

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