American Forum Op-Ed: TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Resolution Waltzes around Tennessee Constitution

Posted by American Forum at 12:24 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Phil Schoggen

Tennessee is considering a proposal to amend the state Constitution to prohibit any tax on incomes or payroll. This resolution would render the state forever dependent on our sales tax, now one of the highest in the nation.

Buried deep in the proposal is a provision that would skirt the Constitution and abandon traditional procedure by declaring that posting an internet notice of the amendment on the Tennessee Secretary of State's or the Tennessee General Assembly's web site would satisfy the Constitution's requirement for official public notice. In the past this notification requirement has been met by publishing notices in newspapers across the state. The purpose of changing the publication method is to reduce the cost of providing the notice.

The problem with the proposed method of providing public notice is that 35 percent of Tennessee households do not have internet access at home and 25 percent do not have internet access anywhere. Voters and community leaders are accustomed to receiving notice in the traditional manner, in their local newspaper. No one knows how effective such a notice would be if published on the internet only. If the public remains uninformed about such serious change in the method of providing a notice, it amounts to legislative action without public awareness.

Amending the Constitution is a momentous undertaking with long-lasting consequences. It should not be easy and it should not be attempted without careful consideration. Amending the Constitution in a way that limits the General Assembly's future options for generating revenue is a risky proposition and a statement of exaggerated self-esteem. It says "We, in this General Assembly, know every circumstance that could possibly occur in the future. None of them could justify ever having an income tax and we don't trust our successors in future General Assemblies to not pass an income tax."

It’s not hard to imagine circumstances that would call for an income tax. A depression or another severe recession might reduce revenue to the extent that an income tax becomes essential to the continuation of a state government that serves its citizens adequately.

An earthquake on the New Madrid fault or a severe outbreak of tornados will require funding for relief and reconstruction efforts that exceeds the capacity of the existing tax structure which is so heavily dependent on a very high sales tax. With both of these potential disasters it’s not a question of "if" but "when" they will occur. Even without these disasters, Tennessee revenue is down because an ever smaller part of economic activity is subject to our sales tax. Severe cuts in state services have been imposed in an effort to keep the budget balanced. If the proposed amendment passes, it would take at least three years to amend it out of the Constitution and pass an income tax. How much would Tennessee suffer in the meantime?

This resolution is an insult to the Constitution, its framers and to current and future citizens and their elected representatives. They all deserve more respect.
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Schoggen is a Tennesseans for Fair Taxation board member.
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Copyright (C) 2011 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 3/11

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Americans Will Lose if the Affordable Care Act is Repealed

Posted by American Forum at 2:05 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Chris Coleman

When the newly-elected Republican congressman from Maryland, Andy Harris, was told that his government-subsidized health insurance would not go into effect until four weeks after his swearing in, he was furious. According to an article in Politico.com, he demanded to know why it would take so long and what he was supposed to do without 28 days of health care.

Ironically, Harris, like most of Tennessee’s congressional representatives, campaigned against “government health care,” and remains committed to repealing the new health care law, which would give his constituents and the American people the very same benefits and protections he is demanding for himself. The House of Representatives will soon vote on a proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and nearly all of Tennessee’s representatives intend to vote in favor of repeal. In other words, our representatives will attempt to take away from us what they intend to keep for themselves and their own families.

What are the benefits and protections that the opponents of the Affordable Care Act want to keep for themselves but deny to the American people? Here are a few examples:

• When the Affordable Care Act fully goes into effect in 2014, it will guarantee that Americans will have access to health coverage, even if they have a pre-existing condition. Members of Congress already have guaranteed access to government-subsidized health coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, yet many will vote to take this protection away from American families.

• The Affordable Care Act will provide tax-credit subsidies for millions of Americans to help make insurance premiums affordable. Opponents of the Affordable Care Act hope to deny these subsidies to Americans, even though members of Congress receive subsidies of almost three-quarters of their total health insurance premiums.

• The Affordable Care Act will eliminate the prescription drug benefit gap, the so-called “donut hole,” for people on Medicare. Elimination of the donut hole started last year, when everyone on Medicare who reached the donut hole received a $250 check to help them pay for their medications.

• This year, seniors falling into the donut hole will get a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs and other discounts on generic drugs. These discounts will increase each year until the donut hole is completely eliminated in 2020. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would eliminate this important improvement in Medicare for seniors and people with disabilities, even though Congressional insurance plans include prescription drug benefits without a coverage gap.

There are many other examples of protections and benefits that members of Congress receive that Americans would lose if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, from limits on out-of-pocket costs when they or their family members get sick, to the right to appeal wrongful denials of insurance claims.

Responding to charges that it is hypocritical to accept government-subsidized health insurance while denying it to American families, several newly elected Congressmen—Bobby Schilling and Joe Walsh of Illinois, Bill Johnson of Ohio, and Mike Kelley of Pennsylvania—have honored their campaign rhetoric by refusing to accept congressional health care.

Other representatives reject the charges of hypocrisy. Freshman Congressman Michael Grimm (R-NY) told reporters, "What am I, not supposed to have health care? It's practicality. I'm not going to become a burden on the state because I don't have health care, and God forbid I get into an accident and I can't afford an operation. That can't happen to anyone."

Unfortunately, that happens to people all the time because most people, unlike Reps. Harris, Grimm, and the entire Tennessee congressional delegation, do not have access to government-subsidized health care. And it will continue to happen if opponents of the Affordable Care Act succeed in their efforts to repeal it.
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Coleman is Staff Attorney of the Tennessee Justice Center.
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Copyright (C) 2011 by Tennessee Editorial Forum. 2/11

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Individual Mandates as a Moral Imperative

Posted by American Forum at 4:39 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Raymond H. Feierabend, MD

It’s no secret that the individual mandate is one of the most unpopular and controversial aspects of the new health care reform law.

It’s being challenged legislatively in the Tennessee General Assembly, and legally through lawsuits such as the one recently ruled on in Virginia. Two thirds of Americans say they would like to see a repeal of that provision of the law. Yet, seven in 10 Americans favor restrictions on insurance companies’ ability to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and to rescind coverage when individuals become ill. Unfortunately, as long as our health care system is based largely on the private insurance industry, we can’t have one without the other.

Politically, passage of comprehensive health care reform would not have been possible with active opposition from the industry. Repeal of the individual mandate alone at this time would be vigorously opposed by health insurers and most health care providers, including hospitals and large health care systems.

Economically, without an individual mandate, the cost of insurance for those in individual and small group markets would continue to skyrocket. As the cost of premiums continues to increase, those who are young and healthy would be more likely to opt out, while those who are older and sicker would have a greater need to stay in the system.

As a form of risk management, health insurance limits each individual’s liability by spreading the cost amongst all those who are insured. The larger the pool of those contributing, the more predictable the costs incurred and the lower the premiums needed to adequately cover those costs. It works only if there is a large enough pool of healthy, lower risk individuals paying premiums into the system. If most of those who participate are ill or at high risk of becoming ill, then the cost of coverage for each individual will be much higher. If individuals wait to begin paying premiums until they become ill, they will reap the benefits of the insurance without having paid into it while healthy.

Most of those who refuse to pay for health insurance even when they are capable of doing so are simply gaming the system. They are willing to take the chance that they won’t get sick; if and when they do, it’s unlikely that they will be able to purchase insurance. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t be taken care of when necessary. If they become seriously ill or have a serious injury they will receive medical care, even if they are unable to pay for it themselves. Most hospitals and emergency departments have moral and legal obligations to provide emergency and lifesaving care to those in need, regardless of their ability to pay.

In 2009, community hospitals in this country provided over $39 billion in uncompensated care; more than half of all emergency room care in this country is uncompensated. Once an uninsured individual has exhausted their own resources, which doesn’t take long for most folks with a serious illness or injury, those who are insured and/or pay taxes end up paying for them. By not requiring everyone who is capable to pay into the system, we allow such folks to take advantage of our expensive health care system without paying for it.

There are only a couple of ways to prevent individuals from abusing the system in this way. First, we can require that everyone participate in the system, either by having insurance or by paying a tax or penalty. This can be accomplished via a single payer system supported by taxes, or by including an individual mandate in the current system. Second, we can require those who are able to obtain insurance but choose not to, to sign a waiver foregoing all medical care that is not paid for up front. Hospitals, emergency departments, physicians and other providers of health care services would then be free to deny any care that isn’t paid for, regardless of the seriousness of the condition.

But is that really the kind of health care system we want in this country?
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Dr. Feierabend is a professor with the Department of Family Medicine at James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University.
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Copyright (C) 2011 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 2/11

Friday, October 29, 2010

Tennesseans Should Pay their Fair Share on Internet Purchases

Posted by American Forum at 10:19 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Jennifer Tlumak

You’ve clicked and scrolled and finally found that perfect something online. From books and clothes to furniture and appliances, pretty much whatever you want can be found from web retailers.

You virtually “check out” and notice the fine print at the bottom of your computer screen, which reads something like: “Colorado residents must pay 6.5 percent tax.” And you breathe a sigh of relief thinking, “Sure glad I live in Tennessee!”

Your Internet deal turns into a steal when you get away without paying a cent in sales tax. It seems like a win-win, but there’s a loser in this game, and ultimately, it’s you, me, and the state of Tennessee.

Click here to read the full article.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Why Health Care Reform Now?

Posted by American Forum at 7:35 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM
By R.C. Braun, MD

Both during and after the health care reform debate many pondered two important questions: Why does our country need to reform our health care system? And, especially, why now when we are in the midst of a serious economic recession?

The response to the first question is in fact why it has it taken so long to change a system which is increasingly failing due to inefficiency, excessive cost, frequent poor results, and exclusion of far too many persons? All of these factors contribute significantly to our country’s economic problems and is why health reform is and was so needed.

Now, can we afford to reform our health care system? On the surface it appears that the proposed changes cost far too much. However, the changes are designed to be “budget neutral” by doing away with much of the waste and profiteering, and instead, promoting cost-effective care.

Many fears have been voiced, often promoted by organizations or businesses which might lose money or influence due to the new proposals. We are told that the government will take control of all health care and make medical decisions, that “I’ll lose my very good health insurance,” or that “Medicare will be drastically cut back” in order to pay for new programs for the uninsured.

It should be recognized that the majority of Americans who have good health care through private pay, insurance, or Medicare will only be slightly affected.

For Tennessee, this legislation comes at a critical time of near disaster for our health care “safety net.” TennCare, which 10 years ago was a national leader in providing health care for the needy, has been decimated to the point that now our state is one of the worst in the nation. The new legislation, among other relevant things, provides federal funding to Tennessee of more than $4 billion a year to cover 650,000 people who are currently uninsured.

Since our bureaucracy moves slowly, full implementation of the new legislation will not take effect until 2014. However, some of the following benefits for many of us will start before the end of this year. For example:

• Health insurance will be mandated, and help in providing it will be available for those in need.

• Insurance companies will be monitored, and will be required to pay out at least 80 percent of their premium income in benefits.

• Insurance benefits cannot be arbitrarily denied or excluded for “pre-existing conditions.”

• Annual checkups and preventive or screening services, such as mammograms and immunizations, will be covered without co-pays and deductibles.

• “Job lock” (continuing unsatisfactory jobs in order to keep health insurance) will disappear with “insurance exchanges.”

• Nearly all children can be covered up to age 26 on their parent’s policy.

Special Medicare provisions for seniors include:

• All guaranteed Medicare benefits remain intact, and reforms help the program remain solvent for years to come.

• Medicare Advantage (Part C) will be revised for better efficiency and fairness.

• Gradual reduction of the “doughnut hole” in Medicare Part D, starting with a $250 rebate this year.

• 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs.

• Investments in training more primary care physicians.

Implementation of the new health care legislation will not solve all of our health care problems, but the negative spell has been broken, and we can look forward to continuing improvements over the years.

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Braun is a medical doctor in Pleasant Hill.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by Tennessee Editorial Forum. 8/10

Sometimes it’s Good for History to Repeat

Posted by American Forum at 7:16 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM
By R.C. Braun, MD

In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the bill establishing the Social Security Administration. It was bitterly opposed by many as an intrusion of government into the lives of private citizens. As originally envisioned it was a very imperfect and incomplete plan, with many defects. Many millions of needy citizens were not included.

There have been many changes in Social Security since 1935. For the most part, these have been positive changes such as adjusting costs and benefits and including more people. This has been an ongoing evolution. Still today there are imperfections and inequalities, such as the lower contribution rates for the wealthy.

There are still some people who oppose Social Security and say: “I don’t need it and I don’t want it.” But the vast majority of senior Americans are dependent on it. It has made life easier for our entire society. Very few people today would agree to its abolition.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the establishment of Medicare, to provide access to affordable health care for seniors and persons with disabilities. Again it was opposed by many, and there were attempts to repeal it. This program also has gone through many changes since 1965, some to make it more efficient, or to add benefits, some to lower costs. And there have been recognized abuses and wastes.

Nevertheless, Medicare has been remarkably effective in bringing access to health care to millions of persons who otherwise would have had to do without care. The increasing life expectancy of Americans is the lasting legacy of Medicare.

However there are still many who grumble about Medicare. Even persons who use and benefit from Medicare complain: “Get the government out of our lives!” However today it would be hard to imagine what life would be like for many persons without Medicare.

Is history repeating?

On March 23, 2010 President Barak Obama signed health care reform into law -- the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Again, this was a very controversial act, fraught with omissions, ambiguities, inconsistencies, and concessions to special interests. Again there has been talk of repeal, or of opting out of its provisions.

But passage of this bill came after many years of almost universal recognition of the serious inadequacies and injustices of our health care system, and after a number of failed efforts at reform by Congress. There has been great pressure on Congress to simply JUST DO SOMETHING!

The major opposition to this bill has been spearheaded by businesses in the health care field which anticipate losing some of their enormous profits, especially the drug and health insurance industries. Major concessions have been made in an attempt to keep them “on board,” but the handwriting is on the wall. They recognize that their dominant role in controlling health care in this country will necessarily and inevitably diminish.

As with Social Security and Medicare, we can anticipate many changes in the present health reform legislation, changes which will modify, clarify, and improve its provisions for the betterment of our health and our country.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Corker’s Leadership Needed on Nuclear Arms Treaty

Posted by American Forum at 2:49 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson

Bob Corker has defied typecasting for a freshman senator, emerging in his first few years in the U.S. Capitol as a go-to leader for getting work done across party lines. Tennesseans should urge him to continue in this vein by leading his fellow Republicans in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

New START, which was signed by President Obama and Russian President Medvedev this April, is presently under review by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and could be sent to the Senate floor as soon as late July. The Treaty is a conservative and modest reduction in both nations’ strategic nuclear forces. It limits each side’s deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, a reduction of approximately 30 percent from the 2002 Moscow Treaty, and restricts deployed delivery vehicles—ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers—to 800.

Perhaps most significantly, New START will continue the verification regime that has given us intelligence on Russian forces for the past two decades. START I, which was proposed by President Reagan and signed by President George H.W. Bush, expired last December. Though both nations have agreed to continue abiding by its provisions in the interim, the need to formalize these trust-building mechanisms has led Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to urge the Senate to ratify New START “as soon as possible.”

Senator Corker has been a careful and thoughtful questioner throughout the more than 10 Senate hearings thus far on New START. He has heard a level of bipartisan support that is nearly unimaginable in the current, poisonously partisan environment of the Beltway. Treaty endorsements so far have come from top security officials representing every administration from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, including George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Brent Scowcroft, and James Schlesinger. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “The New START Treaty has the unanimous support of America's military leadership,” citing “the security it provides to the American people.”

Equally telling is the opposition to the Treaty, which has proven shockingly weak. The voices raised against New START have been primarily those of individuals whose foremost interest is not improving national security, but scoring political points against the Obama White House. Mitt Romney, as an aspiring 2012 presidential candidate, has emerged as the most prominent national critic to date—but nuclear experts dubbed his error-riddled and embarrassingly ill-informed op-ed against New START as “flat wrong” and “shabby, misleading, and…thoroughly ignorant.”

In the meanwhile, red herrings—the Treaty’s alleged impact on American missile defense, for example—have been thoroughly refuted by those who are actually responsible for national security, like Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, who testified that, “The New START Treaty actually reduces previous START treaty's constraints on developing missile defense programs in several areas.”

Yet despite New START’s overwhelming bipartisan support and substantive merit, its fate in the Senate is uncertain. The question is which direction Republican senators will go. Senator Richard Lugar, a recognized expert in nuclear arms control and the GOP’s elder statesman on foreign policy, has declared his strong support for the Treaty; Senators James Inhofe and Jim DeMint have stated their opposition. Senator Corker’s decision on New START could be a bellwether for the rest of the GOP caucus.

Let’s be candid: if this Treaty, which has the unanimous support of our military leadership, had been negotiated by a Republican president, ratification would be both expeditious and with a huge majority. This means that the sticking point is that New START is President Obama’s treaty. Unfortunately, some Senate Republicans seem to be choosing the “party of no” over the traditional axiom that “politics stops at the water’s edge”—preventing the ratification of a treaty that is so obviously in our national security interests.

Senator Corker’s conservative credentials are above reproach. But in an increasingly ideological Capitol, he faces an uphill battle to employ the commonsense pragmatism that he demonstrated as a successful businessman and mayor. Tennesseans would do well to exercise our responsibilities as active citizens and stand behind Senator Corker, letting him know we appreciate his style of leadership on behalf of our state and our nation—and that we welcome the political courage necessary to choose the greater national good over oppressive partisanship.

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The Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson is the founding director of the Nashville-based Two Futures Project, an organization of Evangelical Christians for nuclear security.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by Tennessee Editorial Forum. 7/10

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Immigrants are Still Fighting for ‘Liberty and Justice for All’

Posted by American Forum at 4:35 PM

Tennessee Editorial Forum

By Jaime Gonzalez

My parents are Americans. They are citizens of this great country, which they are proud to call home. They are also immigrants.

My father immigrated to this country from Mexico in 1972 when he was 18 years old. At the time he wanted little more than to provide for his growing family. My mother, then pregnant with my oldest brother, had come over a few months earlier. Before crossing the border my dad was told to squeeze into the spare tire compartment of a station wagon as they drove through customs in Tijuana. For over an hour he prayed and thought of his young wife while trying not to inhale too much of the exhaust that was seeping in from the tail pipe.

That night he slept in a country where dreams come true; a country where people from all over the world are literally risking death just to live here.

The next day my father went to work at a plant nursery earning $1.35 an hour. He worked there for five years. In 1977 he started working for General Motors where he drove cars off the assembly line. It was a turning point in his life: my dad didn’t have to hide in the spare tire compartment anymore.

We all seek definition. As a first generation American born to Mexican immigrants I remember reciting the pledge of allegiance everyday before class. It gave me the clarity of something I could depend on. The words came out of me like a song, and its rhythm seemed to synchronize itself with my heartbeat. I was taught to base the rest of the day on the simplicity of the pledge. Often I would focus on the passage “liberty and justice for all.” At the time it just did not occur to me that even though anyone could cry out their allegiance to this country some people would simply never be heard.

Countless communities across the U.S. are filled with people who have no say. In Shelbyville, the community I belong to, we are repeatedly reminded of the plight of immigrant families who have no confidence in a system they feel has little use for them.

We are constantly receiving reports of honor students being told they cannot continue their higher education because they do not have a social security number. Victims of crime have come to me and said they are afraid to file a report after
they have been robbed simply because they fear legal status scrutiny by police. We have spoken to children who say they become worried when their parents are late coming home because they believe their mother or father have been detained by immigration authorities.

This madness must be brought to an end.

In order to bring a logical and rational solution to our immigration crisis the people must first be heard. The need for reform is clear and more urgent than ever before. It makes little sense to teach children “liberty and justice for all” when this sacred passage is treated like a mere platitude.

Both my mother and father pledged their allegiance to this country, and in 2008 they stated their presence by voting in their first presidential election. They earned this right through their loyalty and devotion to the country they call home. My parents were overwhelmed by emotion as they came to understand the noble power of having a voice when so many immigrants live in constant fear. Millions of people now living in this country, no matter how loyal or devoted, are shut out before ever being heard.

In 2010, on the 21st of March, we will rise to speak for those who are still searching for a voice. We will travel from all over this great nation to gather in Washington D.C., and we will march in the pursuit of a stronger nation for us all. More importantly, however, we will stand together in devotion to the dignity of humanity itself. When the leaders of this nation wake up on that Sunday morning and see us there, tens of thousands of Americans, we will remind them that change takes courage. For we are sons, we are daughters, we are brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, we are students, we are teachers, we are engineers, we are builders, we are civilians, we are soldiers, we are dreamers, we are human, we are here; and, we are marching for America.

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Gonzalez is a community leader from Shelbyville and graduate student at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 3/10

The Right to Migrate: A Faith-Based Perspective

Posted by American Forum at 4:26 PM

Tennessee Editorial Forum

By Rev. Jeremy Tobin

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 13 states that, “Everyone has the right to leave any country including his own, and to return to his country.” Article 14 states that, “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”

From these and other articles and principles enshrined in the UDHR, came “The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families,” which was ratified by the United Nations on December 18, 1990.

People of faith believe that human rights are given by the Creator. They come with birth. Good law is to safeguard and protect these rights.

Both Article 13 and the International Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, declare that people have a right to migrate in order to better their living conditions and escape persecution, poverty and destitution. Migration has been going on as long as payment in return for labor was introduced.

The Catholic Bishops of the United States and Mexico have affirmed the long tradition of Catholic social justice in defending the right to migrate.

The international conventions and the bishops stress the right to migrate. So we begin by defending the right for people to migrate in order to seek work, to support their families and escape poverty and destitution.

International trade policies, notably NAFTA, have contributed to the exploitation of foreign economies and the steady flow of desperate people in search of work.

Historically, U.S. immigration policy is geared toward getting the cheapest labor force possible. It is based on discrimination. It ensures the steady flow of the cheapest labor from slavery to sweatshops, to back breaking field labor, to poultry and meat packing plants, and all manner of labor intensive work. The workers are set up to be treated inhumanely and paid well below what is fair and just. Guest worker policies make workers serfs to the companies that sponsor them. We must demand change in trade policies as well as just immigration reform. Both must happen together.

International conventions and statements from the religious community reinforce the principle that morality and justice are on the side of those struggling for fair and just immigration reform.

Looking at the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, article 33 declares, states take appropriate measures to ensure that migrant workers and their families, are informed, upon request, free of charge, in a language they are able to understand, of the rights under this convention and on all matters that will enable them to comply with administrative or other formalities in the state of employment. Migrants are to be informed, even before they leave, of all conditions they must satisfy to gain employment.

Migrants are being abused, on every level as they seek employment in the U.S. Their desperation has created an illegal trafficking industry that robs them of resources and puts them in harms way. Further, they are not being honestly informed, in their own language, of the real conditions of labor on the other side. This must change.
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Rev. Tobin is a member of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by American Forum 3/10

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Health Security for Tennesseans Must be a Top Priority

Posted by American Forum at 10:53 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Tony Garr

We are facing tough times. We’ve faced them before and pulled our neighbors and ourselves through by making people a priority. This is what the state needs to do now.

More than a quarter million Tennesseans have lost their jobs and their health insurance since the recession began. It is estimated that more than a million Tennesseans are uninsured and have few options for changing that in the near future. Yet, the state seems determined to continue to whittle away at public health programs that combine to serve as the medical safety net. It’s time to get our priorities straight.

Times are tough in each state, yet Tennessee is the only state to cease enrollment in the Children Health Insurance Program, which we call CoverKids and is viewed as a good program by policymakers from both the Right and Left. Forty-nine other governors understand that this is not time to be blocking health care coverage for children of low- to moderate-income working families. Tens of thousands of Tennessee children are eligible for CoverKids and Tennessee gets three federal dollars for each state dollar it invests in the program, so closing it to enrollment is simply penny-wise, pound foolish.

The state has promised since 2005 to reopen the Medically Needy (aka Spend Down) TennCare program. This program is designed as a bridge, like COBRA, for eligible children, elderly, caregivers and those with disabilities to get a year of TennCare after they spend a significant portion of income toward medical bills; thus, they “spend down” to eligibility. It’s estimated that this program would help about 100,000 Tennesseans facing medical debt and lacking coverage.

Also, the state must not continue viewing county jails as part of the mental health safety net. Cuts to state mental health programs passes a huge burden onto local governments, which have neither the financial nor medical means to deal with the complexities of mental health services. State cuts to mental health result in a system that is throw-back from a century ago, with people with mental health challenges being locked up rather than receiving the compassionate and effective care we have come to know as a basic human right.

Tennessee has a $400 million TennCare Reserve and $700 million Rainy Day Fund. For too many years the state has siphoned the TennCare Reserve to shore up other areas of the state budget while losing out on the 2-to-1 federal match. This year the state must get its priorities straight and use monies designated for TennCare to reopen the Medically Needy category which the administration has been promising to do this since 2005.

It has been raining on Tennessee’s working poor for a long time, now is the time to provide families and individuals with some shelter from rain. Let’s invest some of the Rainy Day fund into the medical safety net to help communities with physical and mental health services.

A state budget, like any budget, is about priorities. This year, let’s make vulnerable Tennesseans a priority. The good news is that, despite tough times, we have a TennCare Reserve and a Rainy Day Fund, both designed to be there to meet human need in tough times. So, let’s do the wise and decent thing and use them for their intended purposes.
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Garr is executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 1/10

The Importance of Protecting Tennessee’s Environment in 2010

Posted by American Forum at 10:32 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Chris Ford

As we begin a new decade, Tennesseans look to elected leadership that will both understand and honor two facts that should appear self evident: Tennessee is both a land mass in which we are blessed and privileged to live and a unique and diverse people who call the land within these boundaries home.

Our state is home to many of the most biologically diverse and beautiful pieces of the planet anywhere on Earth. From the mountains of the east to the mighty Mississippi in the west, we both cherish and rely upon the beauty and bounty of these resources for economic stability, healthy living and a way of life that is unique and worth protecting.

In order to maintain this sustainable balance, we must both rely upon and call upon our elected leadership to begin to protect these resources in a sustainable manner that does not divorce strong economic development from strong environmental protection. Weakened environmental safeguards and shortsighted economic gains will seek to sell our birthright for the proverbial bowl of stew if we do not advocate a sustainable future for those futures of generations that inherit our state.

This year we begin a new decade that calls upon the Tennessee General Assembly to consider with all seriousness and due diligence conservation and environmental priorities including:

• Restoration of dedicated funds from real estate transfer tax. These funds are dedicated by law to go to the Wetlands Fund, State Land Acquisition Fund, Local Parks and Recreation Fund, and the Agriculture Resources Trust Fund.

• Preserving water quality and opposing efforts to weaken protection of streams and rivers. We will fight to maintain selenium regulation and the right to sue for nuisances

• Banning mountain top removal by restricting issuance of coal-mining permits relative to altering ridgelines and polluting streams, an obviously needed protection with bi-partisan support whose time has come. We have seen with sadness this unnecessary devastation of our Appalachian neighbors to the northeast. Our Tennessee economy’s second largest sector is tourism from our natural beauty---coal does not even rank in the top 100.

• Improving air quality by supporting measures to regulate open burning and aerial spraying and to promote helpful energy bills that play important roles in improving air quality. Our asthma rates and poor air quality consistently rank among the worst in the nation, with many of these negative effects harming the most vulnerable----our children, the elderly and minority populations.

• Safeguarding environmental funding and fighting to keep enforcement, parks and other conservation positions and budget items funded in a difficult economy. Our residents’ ability to enjoy these state parks and to be protected from pollution even in difficult economic times should be a fundamental priority and right of each Tennessee citizen.

As always, we will continue furthering proposals positive to our cause and working to defeat ones harmful to our goals, not only in the five priority areas above, but also relative to: billboard regulation; recycling and solid waste reform; balanced composition for environmental boards; maintaining local options banning guns in local parks; landfill protections including radioactive waste issues and coal ash landfills; public transportation; and government authority to apply smart growth principles and efficiency.

We ask Tennesseans to work to protect our way of life for the future, one that will include positive economic growth, strong environmental protection and a sustainable life for future generations.
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Ford is executive director of Tennessee Conservation Voters in Nashville. A former mainline minister and father of one daughter, he hails from ten generations of East Tennesseans in Cocke County.
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Copyright (C) 2010 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 1/10

Friday, December 11, 2009

Voter Confidence Act Must be Implemented by November 2010

Posted by American Forum at 9:56 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Dick Williams

The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) requires replacement of paperless touchscreen voting machines with optical ballot scanners by November 2010. Optical-scan voting systems read marked paper ballots and tally results, providing a tangible record of the voter's intent. They are now the most widely employed voting systems in the nation, used by 60 percent of voters in other states.

The TVCA was adopted nearly unanimously by the Tennessee Legislature – by both Democrats and Republicans -- and in 2008 enthusiastically signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen. But implementation of the law has been ensnarled in legalities and technicalities.

Tennessee's secretary of state and coordinator of elections have argued that the new law requires scanners be federally certified to 2005 standards, and because no machines have yet been certified to that standard, the law cannot be put into effect in time for 2010 Elections.

That’s why Common Cause Tennessee and other voters' rights advocates, in an effort to break the logjam, filed a lawsuit seeking clarification of the law's language. Nothing is more important than having verifiable ballots. There is no good reason for running the 2010 elections with systems that are vulnerable to error and don't allow a recount or an audit.

In a November 5 ruling, Chancellor Russell T. Perkins concluded that the TVCA does not require new ballot scanners to meet those 2005 standards, but declined to issue an injunction forcing application of the law. Still, the court ruled that the secretary of state was "obligated to take prompt, effective steps to meet the statutory deadline" as long as their choice of standards "does not jeopardize meeting the Legislative mandate to implement…on or before the November 2010 election."

Tennesseans need – and deserve – to have verifiable ballots in place for the 2010 election. Paperless systems are subject to unintended errors and possible hacking; hence votes might not be recorded as intended. Without a paper ballot available for audit or contested election, there is no way to tell whether a voter's intent was accurately recorded. These are not just abstract, theoretical concerns. California, after rigorous testing, decertified the same machines which are still deemed acceptable in Tennessee. Are California’s votes more precious, more sacred than the vote of Tennesseans?

Steven John Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor and Shelby County commissioner, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said, “This is a vindication of the election reformers’ position all along. The court agrees with us that, contrary to what the secretary of state has been saying, the TVCA allows us to use currently available voting machines, and that the secretary is legally required to begin doing so immediately.”

State Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins said the court's conclusion could force the state to obtain obsolete equipment that would have to be replaced. But an affidavit submitted by voting technology expert Dr. Douglas Jones, associate professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of Iowa said that if election officials wish, optical scanners certified to 2002 standards could be upgraded to 2005 standards without difficulty.

After the ruling, plaintiffs’ attorney Gerard Stranch stated “The ball is now in the secretary of state’s court. Hopefully, they will have greater respect for the will of the court than they did for the will of the legislature.”
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Williams is state chair of Common Cause Tennessee.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 12/09

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Green Economic Solutions for Economically Distressed Communities

Posted by American Forum at 4:39 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Dr. Sekou Franklin

The emergence of a grass-roots movement pushing for green economic solutions to climate change and poverty has been a surprising development. This movement believes environmentally sustainable policies and the shift to a clean energy economy can lead to reduction of pollution and greenhouse gases. It also believes green-collar employment – family-supporting jobs in the clean and renewable energy sector – must be accessible to residents of economically distressed communities.

The Green-Collar Jobs Task Force of Nashville-Davidson County (a network of environmentalists, work-force development professionals, and social justice activists) was formed in 2008 to advocate for an inclusive green economy. In meetings with state and local officials, task force members have pushed for green work-force training programs modeled after similar initiatives in Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; Oakland, CA; Providence, RI; Boston, MA; Portland, OR; and Newark, NJ. These programs share a common thread: As public-private partnerships, they provide work force development (vocational training, wraparound services, career coaching, environmental literacy) in the clean energy sector for underemployed workers and veterans, formerly incarcerated persons, transitional housing residents, low-income women, and workers with language barriers.

Sadly, no major city in the Southeast has a public, privately backed, green training program targeting the aforementioned populations, even though it is the most polluted and poorest region in the country.

Although Gov. Phil Bredesen’s Task Force on Energy Policy and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s Green Ribbon Committee want to position middle Tennessee as a regional leader in clean and renewable energies, they have yet to put political weight behind green jobs initiatives for communities suffering from chronic unemployment and underemployment.

Consider a green jobs program targeting hundreds of at-risk young adults from Nashville’s inner-city neighborhoods. Imagine if this program were extended to struggling workers in rural communities devastated by deindustrialization. Or consider the creation of green-based micro-enterprises for women in low-income communities shunned from manufacturing jobs and government contracts. These initiatives would offer an antidote to ecological decay, poverty and the hopelessness that contaminate these communities. Civil rights, women’s rights and youth groups also believe that green jobs initiatives can potentially reduce racial and gender inequities in the clean energy sector.

The NAACP, the Climate Equity Alliance, the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change, Wider Opportunities for Women, the National Urban League, and the Hip-Hop Caucus’s Green the Block initiative insist green jobs programs can remedy the structural violence (and twin evils) of poverty and pollution.

As indicated in a May 2009 study, "The Climate Gap," authored by the University of Southern California’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, green economic solutions also can reduce public health epidemics in low-income communities and communities of color.

Green jobs and environmentally sustainable practices will be the focus of the Compass VI Conference on Green Jobs sponsored by the Tennessee Alliance for Progress (www.taptn.org) Dec. 4-5 at Nashville’s Cohn Adult Learning Center. Organized in collaboration with the task force, the conference will bring together leading environmental and social activists from across the state and country. All are welcome to attend. See you there.
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Franklin is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and coordinator of the Urban Studies Program at Middle Tennessee State University. He is also a founding member of the Green-Collar Jobs Task Force of Nashville-Davidson County.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 12/09

Monday, November 16, 2009

A Community Trembles in Fear

Posted by American Forum at 3:13 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM
By Jan Snider

She looked so tiny holding the calloused hand of her young uncle; just five years old and excited about starting kindergarten. But as she shuffled down the polished floors of the church hallway toward our immigration legal clinic, there was worry in her big brown eyes.

She didn’t know when she would see her daddy again. He was picked up for a broken tail light and locked in detention, on track for removal from the U.S. because he was undocumented. Her mother, a U.S. citizen, had long ago abandoned the family. Her father was going to be deported and she was, most likely, going to be placed in state custody.

Suddenly, thoughts of new school shoes and fresh crayons were replaced with fear and uncertainty. These are the same feelings that so many of our clients at Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors face every day. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave local law enforcement the power to act as federal immigration agents, a community began to feel hunted. A policy known as 287(g) has forced them into the shadows.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall persuaded the citizenry of Nashville in 2007 that 287(g) would make us a safer community by aiding in the deportation of “criminal illegal aliens:” drug dealers, thieves, and violent individuals. But, as it unfolded, 80 percent of those processed for deportation were originally arrested for minor violations. Something as simple as fishing without a license or failure to use a turn signal suddenly resulted in deportations that ripped families apart. What was intended to be a policy to protect our citizenry from the most violent criminals has turned it into a home-grown remedy for our nation’s broken immigration laws.

Just this past month, six communities throughout the nation acknowledged the disastrous impact of 287(g) and revoked their agreements. Despite the shifting momentum, Nashville’s leadership quashed debate about this issue and voted to continue the program.

When we formed Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors nearly two years ago, our mandate was clear. As a largely volunteer-run organization with its roots in the United Methodist Church, we provide free high-quality immigration legal services to the poorest of the poor.

When there’s a remedy, we apply it; when there’s no path to legalization we explain it; when there’s injustice, we expose it.

While our current immigration laws are convoluted and dysfunctional, the 287(g) agreement catapults our legal system to the point of actually harming people. No decent person approves of mistreating others, but for people like me, who have taken the name “Christian,” there is a stronger imperative.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells his followers that on the day he returns, one of the questions he will ask is whether we have been hospitable to “the stranger,” which is translated as “the immigrant.” If we have been unkind, inhumane, or inhospitable, even to the immigrant that we believed deserved kindness the least, it will be as if we did it to Jesus personally.

We hear the stories of why these immigrants have come to live with us. They have often escaped persecution and abuse, or arrived here as a result of human trafficking, or fled numbing poverty. These situations are not black and white, but many shades of gray. One thing is clear: the policy of 287(g) has become a perverted version of its original intent.

As Nashville celebrates yet another year of being named the “friendliest city,” our immigrant brothers and sisters tremble in fear of being singled out for a minor infraction that should be subject to a fine but could result in their family being torn apart.

As a Christian and an advocate for social justice, I pray that no more children will suffer the fear and pain that I witnessed in the eyes of that five year old. I pray that someday our community will affirm that while we must uphold the law, we must also uphold the values of human dignity and respect for family integrity.
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Snider is chair of Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors, a nonprofit organization that provides free immigration legal services, education and advocacy.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 11/09

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Seeking Sensible Priorities to Help Uninsured Neighbors

Posted by American Forum at 11:17 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Tony Garr

We’re in a pretty tough economic time. We’ve seen this before and have pulled our neighbors and ourselves through by using our good sense and decency.

But, help me understand this:

More than a quarter million Tennesseans have lost their jobs and their health insurance since the recession started in December 2007. Before then, there were 850,000 uninsured Tennesseans. In May 140,000, TennCare enrollees began receiving notice that their TennCare would be ending. By the end of September, as few as 20,000 will retain their eligibility. In February of this year, Tennessee got good news when it learned that it was getting an additional $1.1 billion for its TennCare program to help people stay enrolled, keeping Tennesseans secure in these insecure economic times.

Stay with me, I have some more puzzling information.

The state closed the Medically Needy TennCare program for adults in May 2005, promising to re-open it soon. Now May 2009 has passed, and it‘s still shut tight. In 2005 the program was frozen, closed to new enrollees, leaving 97,000 enrolled. In 2007, the state changed the eligibility rules, allowing people to count only medical bills that they owe that are only three months old, not older medical bills. As a result, when TennCare conducted an eligibility determination in 2008, less than 1,000 people remained eligible. Now the governor proposes to keep the program closed. Does the governor think that because he’s shut the door on these folks they no longer exist—that Tennesseans aren’t hurting like other Americans; therefore, there is no need to re-open this program?

Now, for the tough part: tricky political math. State funds, not federal, proposed for the TennCare budget for fiscal year 2010 are less than they were for fiscal year, 2009, yet TennCare will actually cover fewer people and receive over $300 million additional federal dollars for fiscal year 2009, over $500 million for fiscal year 2010, and over $200 million for fiscal year 2011.

Of course, the state needs to balance its budget, but, it can do so without sacrificing some of its citizens who are in the economic abyss. So should it be okay for the state, the place for service of last resort for the most vulnerable of its citizens, to shrug its shoulder, turn away, and just say, “You are on your own. Good luck!”?

There are thousands of struggling families and now is the time--not during good times, but during bad times--when folks really need help. And there is no good reason for the state not to help. There is an existing program and more than enough existing funds reserved for health care to help Tennessee families.

Now is the time to re-open the TennCare Medically Needy program. This is a no-brainer. It will help thousands of eligible Tennesseans obtain medical coverage. It will do it with less state money and more federal money, and it will not obligate the state for future coverage beyond 2011 when the stimulus money runs out.

Here’s how it works:

• Tennessee will get three federal dollars for each state dollar under the stimulus package. It used to get only two federal dollars; • People who qualify can only get coverage for one year. This is like a bridge, like COBRA. For this reason, one-time money is what is needed. No problem here because TennCare has a reserve of about $500 million dollars and the state has a rainy day fund of 750 million; • It will only help people who have low incomes and who are either disabled, elderly, or the caregivers of children under the age of 21. By opening this program, it will not help everyone, but it will help thousands of very vulnerable Tennesseans.

It all adds up to priorities. Are working, low-income folks worth it? Or are they somehow undeserving because they have nothing to give to a re-election campaign?

Do state legislators care? Do Tennesseans care? In these tough times, are we still the decent people we say we are? I believe we are.
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Garr is executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 6/09

Monday, May 4, 2009

Honoring The True Meaning Of Mother’s Day

Posted by American Forum at 10:33 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Elizabeth Barger

As we celebrate Mother’s Day to honor the most important person in our lives, let us not forget the history behind its origin in our country.

In the years after the Civil War, a young Appalachian mother named Anna Jarvis worked to heal both the physical and emotional wounds of families on both sides, calling for a Mother’s Work Day to improve living conditions for all and build reconciliation between neighbors.

Inspired by the work of Anna Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” took up the cause. When the Franco American War began in 1870, Howe used her fame to send a call to women of all nations to recognize their common humanity, seek peaceful resolutions to conflicts and take a firm stance against any and all wars. She issued a proclamation calling for a Congress of Women, stating, “We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says ‘Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.’”

Across the years, Julia Ward Howe’s words speak as true today as they did then. The conflict in the Middle East has affected us in more ways than we may be aware. For example, Tennessee has lost the use of billions of tax dollars — an amount calculated from a percent of taxes removed from the state to pay for the occupation in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the funding of conflicts in the Middle East. All of our cities and counties have thinner budgets because of the cost of this war. That means everything from health care to education gets less attention and less money.

Yet even more tragic is the loss of precious Tennessee soldiers and the terrible reality of the wounded in body and soul who come home to the lack of proper medical and psychological care. And, the loss of lives and resources for millions of innocent civilians caught in the conflict must rouse our compassion and calls for peace.

Six years ago, a group of Tennessee women, led by founders of PeaceRoots Alliance and More Than Warmth, came together with middle Tennessee women to honor Julia Ward Howe, and remember that Mother’s Day began as a call for our children’s future and a call for peace.

This Mother's Day at Dragon Park in Nashville, Code Pink, and the Nashville Peace Coalition will bring mothers and their children together with church and civic groups, and a growing number of families to oppose violence and work for peace.

"In 2009, may we reach farther into our hearts and souls to help others,” says Judith Biondo Meeker, the founder of More Than Warmth and one of the original organizers of an event in Nashville. Because Barak Obama has said, “sometimes I think that if you just put the mothers in charge for a while, that things would get resolved," we feel, as mothers, we can reach Michelle Obama, who has shown the world compassion and intelligence of humane citizenship, who may then influence her husband toward peaceful policies.

In Nashville we will carry a banner that says, “We will raise our children to be kind to every mother’s child.”

Honoring our mothers is a good thing. Honoring the strength and fortitude of mothers who demand peace and stand for the protection of all children and families is the true meaning of Mother’s Day.
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Barger is a recipient of the 2009 TAP Lifetime Achievement Long Haul Award and long time advocate for peace and freedom.
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Copyright (C) 2000 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 5/09

Monday, April 27, 2009

Tennessee Voter Confidence Act Must Be Implemented Now

Posted by American Forum at 12:13 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Bernie Ellis and Margie Parsley

Tennessee went from being one of the 12 worst states for election security to one of the 18 most secure.

We should all be proud of that accomplishment. It took us three years of study, hard work and perseverance to come to the conclusion that our elections are too important to be left to unverifiable direct record electronic machines (DREs) that are easy to hack and impossible to audit.

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations recommended the move to paper ballots, as did the legislature’s Joint Committee on Voter Confidence. Many newspapers around the state supported this legislation. It was truly a nonpartisan effort, and all Tennesseans -- regardless of political party -- who want our votes to be counted as they are cast, cheered the success.

On June 5, 2008, more than a dozen Tennessee citizens who had worked hard to help save our democracy joined Gov. Bredesen on the podium when he signed the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA). On that day, the Governor said: “The right to vote is one of the cornerstones of our democracy, and every voter deserves the 100 percent assurance that his or her vote will be counted. I am proud that Tennessee is taking a big step forward in improving voter confidence."

We were proud too, and shared the Governor’s belief that the TVCA had made our elections safer and more secure for all citizens. But that was then. This is now.

Over the past month, our legislators have been given extremely high cost estimates concerning the shift to paper ballots and routine audits as an excuse for delaying TVCA implementation until 2012. Some of these “extra cost” estimates would be laughable if they were not so dangerous.

One county estimated it would cost them $70,000 “extra” to store paper ballots that would not fill a single filing cabinet. Another county estimated it would cost almost $40,000 “extra” to conduct the routine two-hour training class for poll workers. Several counties estimated it would cost $10,000-$20,000 “extra” to audit a few hundred votes in a single precinct; costs that would average out to more than $50 per ballot.

The truth is, voting with paper ballots/optical scan machines are 30-40 percent less expensive than voting on the unverifiable DREs. That is because a single optical scan machine can do the work of more than 10 DREs, reducing both the time it takes citizens to vote and reducing the unnecessary expense of storing, transporting, programming, testing and retesting so many unneeded DREs. Studies in North Carolina, Maryland and Florida have confirmed these savings.

It is important that we implement the TVCA as intended before the 2010 elections. Tennessee took a big step forward last year in improving voter confidence with the TVCA. There are no good arguments for delaying this vital law. Democracy delayed is democracy denied.
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Ellis is an organizer for Gathering To Save Our Democracy. Parsley is the state action chair of the League of Women Voters.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 4/09

Monday, February 23, 2009

Tennessee’s Crisis Prone Tax System

Posted by American Forum at 11:03 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Thomas F. Dernburg

Currently, most states are suffering revenue shortages that are largely due to the recession. Tennessee is among them. But what sets Tennessee apart is that, even in good times, state and local budgets cannot be balanced without resorting to legislated tax increases and/or spending cuts.

Under normal conditions, population and productivity growth raise the state's income. To maintain current services, public spending must rise at the same rate as the rise in state income. Revenues, therefore, need to grow at that same rate.

Despite this fact that revenues rise automatically as income rises, Tennessee's tax system is such that a 1 percent increase in the state's income yields only an eight-tenth of 1 percent increase in revenue. This means that in every year, regardless of economic conditions, Tennessee governments are confronted by revenue shortages and periodic budget crises.

The Tennessee state government relies on a commodity-based sales tax for almost two-thirds of its revenue; services are not taxed. This is part of the problem because there has been a trend of a continuing shift of consumer spending away from commodity consumption into service consumption. Even in the short run, the percentage of consumer income spent on non-taxable services increases as income rises.

With the tax base dominated by sales taxes, increases in sales taxes have been the most likely candidate for raising substantial additional revenue. This has produced a vicious circle of a revenue shortfall to be followed by a sales tax increase, to be followed by another revenue shortfall a short time later, to be followed by yet another increase in the sales tax.

The sales tax was introduced in 1947 at a rate of 2 percent. It has risen to 6 percent for grocery food and to 7 percent for other commodities. Local governments add another 2.5 percent. The 8.5 percent at which food is taxed is the highest in the country. It's no wonder that citizens flock to the surrounding eight states to make large fractions of their purchases, thereby taking business away from Tennessee enterprises.

Another characteristic of the present revenue system is that it is grossly unfair. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported that Tennessee's tax system is the most regressive unfair of any state other than Florida and Washington. The 20 percent of families at the lowest income level pay roughly 11.7 percent of their income in state and local taxes. The top 1 percent pays only 3.4 percent. Poor families spend the bulk of their income on taxed food and clothing while well-to-do families spend a large fraction on untaxed services.

There have been three commissions created by the state legislature to study the tax system and propose reforms. The latest, which reported its findings in late 2004, recommended significant reductions in sales taxes with revenue losses stemming from the sales tax cuts to be offset by a graduated individual income tax. These recommendations are the same as the earlier tax study commissions. They have been ignored by the legislature, which seems to regard tax commissions as window dressing designed to side step hard decisions.

All sales taxes should be reduced with the food tax abolished entirely. A graduated individual income tax should be adopted at the same time. A graduated income tax operates through a bracket system under which poor families are exempt, with rising individual incomes causing an increase in the proportion of income taken in taxes. The tax burden on lower income families would be shifted towards higher income families, thereby addressing the fairness issue. The crisis prone characteristic of the present system would also be eliminated, because graduated income taxes generate revenue increases at a rate somewhat faster than the growth of income.

To break the vicious cycle of revenue shortfall, all sales taxes should be reduced, the food tax abolished entirely, and a graduated individual income tax system implemented in a timely fashion so as to ensure the security and equity of our state economy.
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Dernburg is an emeritus professor of Economics at the American University and a former holder of the Chair of Excellence in Free Enterprise at Austin Peay State University.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 2/09

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Coal Disaster

Posted by American Forum at 10:35 AM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Howard Switzer

It's being called a huge environmental disaster but, unlike Katrina, the TVA coal ash pond dam collapse disaster was not caused by the environment. Rather, this disaster was caused by the continued use of a dirty, poisonous fuel used in an outdated and inefficient mode of energy production -- coal. Earthen dams holding the toxic materials from burning coal fail all the time.

While several homes were damaged by the collapse and no injuries were reported, one can expect the toxic mix of arsenic, lead, barium, chromium and manganese -- the toxic materials concentrated in the ash -- to have a lasting effect on the health of those living downstream.

Coal kills. It has a long history of doing so. Today it is estimated that over 64 million Americans breathe air that has so much particle pollution that it puts their health at risk. Coal is estimated to cause 25,000 deaths in the U.S. every year from diseases caused by breathing particles and soot from coal emissions. Besides the microscopic particles linked to asthma and heart disease there are other health effects as well as the forest killing acid rain.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest single man-made source of mercury pollution in the U.S. and they are the largest contributor of hazardous air pollutants overall. Startling new research shows that one out of every six women of childbearing age in the U.S. may have blood mercury concentrations high enough to damage a developing fetus -- putting 630,000 babies at risk.

Coal has killed many more Americans than any terrorist and yet we tend to turn our heads or at best briefly note the event before we move on; apparently unable to face the inconvenient truth. King coal is powerful and has been whispering in our ears all of our lives just so that we ignore its crimes. It’s time people awoke and insisted on clean energy, really clean energy. It's also time we reduced our appetite for electricity and fossil fuels.

Now is the time to truly develop solar energy. We have no more time to waste. The scientists can continue to study how to make electricity from the sun ever more efficiently, but there is much more that we can do now that does not require a rocket scientist, mathematician or an economist to figure out. It's the stuff we as communities can do.

A truly sustainable solution that leaves fossil fuels behind will require a considerable redesign in the way we do things. We already have the underutilized technologies required for simply and economically producing liquid and gas fuels from plant, animal and human wastes -- ethanol and methane. Every community should be making sure they are collecting, retaining, slowing and cleaning whatever flow of water they may be blessed with. We can clean our waterways by utilizing water cleaning vegetation that turns out to be the very best fuel crops.

We can grow our food locally as humans have for 4 million years -- a relatively simple transformation that would take us a long way toward better health and security as well. By building greenhouses a diverse diet can be grown pretty much anywhere year around. This can also allow a more horticultural and intensive organic food production system and provide lots of jobs.

An important part of what makes such a system sustainable is that it is community based. By hooking up the waste loops between our animal and plant food production systems with our clean water and fuel production systems we can create sustainable symbiotic relationships that can provide for our future generations and finally be done with the disaster that is coal.
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Switzer is a columnist and an ecological architect who helps people with buildings of earth and straw.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 2/09

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Just Show Me the Money

Posted by American Forum at 3:10 PM

TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Patrick D. Reagan, Ph.D.

The newly-minted Republican majority in the Tennessee General Assembly is faced with an unaccustomed reality: responsibility for governing, rather than criticizing those who hold that responsibility. Tennesseans, not unexpectedly, are curious about how this newfound responsibility will be implemented.

The overwhelming challenge confronting the Republican majority is certain to be the enormous budget deficit, likely to exceed $1 billion for this and next year. Gov. Bredesen will present his budget recommendations in February but he is already talking about 20 percent cuts in most departments and related functions, like higher education and health care. Reductions of this magnitude will bring real suffering and loss to millions of Tennesseans.

The nation’s economic misery is partly to blame, but so is Tennessee’s antiquated, dysfunctional, unfair, and ineffective tax system. By relying so heavily on the nation’s highest sales tax for the state’s principal revenue source, the revenue shortfall is hardly surprising. There is no doubt about the situation: Tennessee is in a horrendous budget mess.

How will the new Republican majority deal with this reality? Time will reveal all, but the first salvo is not reassuring. More than three dozen House Republicans are proposing a constitutional amendment that would prohibit an income or payroll tax. There have been similar proposals in the past but they have never passed the General Assembly. One can hardly imagine a worse time to resurrect this horrible idea. Where’s the money to run the state government supposed to come from? It’s simply a matter of “Just show me the money!”

We already have the highest average state and local sales tax in America, ranging from 9.25 percent to 9.75 percent in some counties. And this is the sales tax that currently is falling about $1 billion short.

Are we then to crank up the sales tax even higher, to over 10 percent, driving more business to other states, leaving the state even more vulnerable to deficits in the future, shortchanging our schools, roads, universities and community colleges, economic development, environment, and health care and extracting an even higher portion of state revenues from those citizens least able to pay? And what do we do five years later when the 10 percent sales tax falls short?

The truth is that this proposal will place Tennessee on a certain path, leading inevitably, within a decade or so, to a 15 percent state sales tax. The catastrophic impacts of this situation can scarcely be imagined.

As a colleague remarked to me recently, the anti-income tax constitutional amendment is like seeing a wall of fire in the kitchen, and instead of grabbing a fire extinguisher, you lock the door and start nailing the windows shut.

With the $1 billion shortfall, there are some short-term fixes we can take such as closing tax loopholes that make it possible for some businesses to shift their taxes onto someone else. Several hundred million dollars of tax revenue can be captured by closing just a handful of the most outrageous tax give-a-ways. Also we can repeal sales tax exemptions in Tennessee that reflect lobbying skill more than common sense. This can add another hundred million or so of revenue now foregone.

Long-term, though, we must take tax modernization seriously and provide Tennessee with the tax structure required for survival in the 21st century. What would modernization look like? First, cut the sales tax in half and repeal most or all of the grocery food tax -- about 70 percent of Tennesseans would pay less to the state than they do now. Second, initiate a tax on income that would exempt the first $15,000 earned by individuals and $30,000 earned by couples, along with a $2,500 exemption for each dependent. Third repeal the Hall tax on dividends and interest. In addition, this modernized tax structure would produce at least $1 billion more of state revenue than the sales tax-dependent system we have now. All this, with 70 percent paying less than they are paying now!

So there’s the choice. Travel down the road advocated by those proposing to prohibit any version of a tax on income and arrive at sales tax nirvana of 10 to 15 percent. Or take the road of tax modernization that leads to a tax cut for about 70 percent of Tennesseans, plus the revenues to avoid, or at least lessen in severity, today’s crunching budget realities.

Despite their shaky start, we can still hope our elected officials choose tax fairness and common sense rather than a constitutional amendment leading to eventual catastrophe.
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Reagan is a professor of American economic, political and military history at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.
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Copyright (C) 2009 by the Tennessee Editorial Forum. 2/09

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