NORQUIST NASTINESS

DHinMI has a couple of good posts (here and here) about the ideological rigidity of the movement conservatives and why that means it is foolish to promote bi-partisanship. Going over The Big Con, I found an example on pages 99-100 of how inflexible the money-cons are when it comes to taxes. The WaPo has the basic story¹:

In a stunning subplot to the fiscal crises roiling the states, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) -- who for three terms in Congress boasted that he never voted for a tax increase and was elected governor on a promise not to raise taxes -- is proposing to raise state taxes by a record $ 1.2 billion, eight times the largest previous increase and almost twice what is needed to close a $ 675 million budget deficit.

Seizing Alabama's crisis as an opportunity to right historic wrongs, he says the state should act to improve schools funded at the nation's lowest level per child and to lift the tax burden from poor people, who pay income taxes starting at $ 4,600 a year for a family of four while out-of-state timber companies pay $ 1.25 an acre in property taxes. The changes would move Alabama from 50th to 44th in total state and local taxes per capita, he say

The born-again Baptist governor is telling voters in this Bible Belt state that their tax system, which imposes an effective rate of 3 percent on the wealthiest Alabamians and 12 percent on the poorest, is "immoral" and needs repair.

Now, the battle is taking on national dimensions, with conservative Republican groups in Washington mobilizing to defeat Riley's plan. "If this can pass in Alabama, it could be a precedent to attempt it elsewhere, and muddy the anti-tax message," Connors said. Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, who gave Riley as congressman his group's Friend of the Taxpayer Award every year from 1997 through 2002, vowed to make Riley "the poster child for Republicans who go bad. I want every conservative Republican elected official in the United States to watch Bob Riley lose and learn from it."

The American Conservative Union, Citizens for a Sound Economy, National Taxpayers Union, Eagle Forum, Family Research Council and other grass-roots conservative groups signed a letter with Norquist denouncing Riley for a "grab for the special interests and unions" that "will burden every segment of society."

¹August 17, 2003 Sunday
Correction Appended
Final Edition
Alabama Tied in Knots by Tax Vote;
Riley Stuns GOP by Stumping for Hike
BYLINE: Dale Russakoff, Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 2288 words
DATELINE: PELHAM, Ala.