Say Anything Blog

That’s right, the AARP of all organizations is rallying opposition to initiated measures to create an oil trust fund in the state and cut personal/business income taxes.

The organized campaign to pass a permanent oil tax trust fund into the state’s constitution could meet some big organized opposition this fall.

North Dakota’s 86,000-member strong AARP branch has been reaching out to other groups across the state to form a coalition against that measure.

The coalition also is being organized to combat two other potential ballot measures that are in the petition stage: a statute change that would cut personal income taxes by 50 percent and a constitutional change that would restrict government spending growth to the inflation rate.

Linda Wurtz of the AARP said her group’s opposition to the measures is rooted in the organization’s nationwide policy to oppose setting tax policy in a state’s constitution. A similar measure in Colorado has had negative consequences on that state, she said.

“You can’t predict now what kind of situation your legislators will face in two years or 10 years,” Wurtz said.

What’s really going on here is the AARP is the nation’s biggest, baddest proponent of entitlement spending, and if the state cuts taxes or diverts funds into an oil trust fund that’s lest money for the group to lobby for.  Put simply, the AARP doesn’t want you to keep more of your money.  The AARP wants the government to have that money so that the politicians the AARP lobbies can spend it as the AARP sees fit.

You’ll remember that this is the organization which opposes any effort to fix the Social Security boondoggle and supported the expansion of Medicare to include a prescription drug entitlement.

What’s really troubling about the group, however, is that it lobbies for increased entitlements for a core constituency that pays little or nothing in taxes in the first place.  Most retirees don’t pay much in the way of income taxes or payroll taxes, so when the AARP demands massive new entitlements it’s not the group’s membership that will be paying for them.

Which is exactly why the AARP doesn’t want to see a cut in state income taxes.  The group’s membership doesn’t really pay those taxes.