GoBigEd

Posted 11:55 AM by Susan Darst Williams

WE'D BETTER PASS INITIATIVE 423
OR FACE THE 'WE'RE OUTA HERE' FACTOR

Footnote to the fight over the "Stop Overspending" measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, Initiative 423, that would put a light brake on the spending patterns of the biggest beneficiary of state tax dollars, the public schools:

A study of state tax policies and outmigration shows clearly and convincingly that states with low, simple tax structures are growing in leaps and bounds, and states with high, complicated tax systems are stagnant or shrinking.

Nebraska's population fell by 9.7% between 1995 and 2000, according to the study, ranking it 37th among the states, and in stark contrast to population growth in tax-averse states such as Nevada, Arizona and Georgia.

The "Stop Overspending" measure would at least be a thumb in that dam. Otherwise, we may see more and more of the wealthy and productive Nebraskans high-tailing it out of here, while our happy-tax environment, unchecked, continues to woo the low-income, low-educated, high-needs citizens who may be very nice, but are quite the load.

It would be a major boo-boo to turn our backs on this opportunity to at least get some semblance of self-control onto our educrats with this common-sense initiative, especially when we know, by data such as this, that we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot and stomping on ourselves to keep goin' the way we're goin':

www.goldwaterinstitute.org/pdf/materials/444.pdf