Say Anything Blog

That’s usually the excuse we hear from politicians who don’t want to talk about a particular subject at all.  I have a feeling this news release was prompted by my post the other day where I contacted Hoeven’s campaign and asked them about the Governor’s stance on the tax cut initiated measure.

BISMARCK, ND (2007-12-03) Governor John Hoeven (R-ND) says he has plans in the works to continue to provide tax relief.

Hoeven says it will be based on how well North Dakota’s economy does over the next 19 months.

The group “Americans for Prosperity is collecting signatures on an initiated measure to cut personal income tax in half—and reduce corporate income taxes by 25 percent. The leader—Duane Sand—says the state could have a billion dollars in surplus by 2009. But Hoeven says it’s too early to make that kind of prediction.

“We’re four months into this biennium,”’ said Hoeven. “I’d encourage a little thoughtfulness in terms of how we approach this, and recognize that we need to continue to grow, and build the revenue. We will make good decisions about tax relief, funding our priorities and making sure there’s money in the bank for the future. That’s what we’ll do.”

With the state having spent its entire budget surplus last year, increasing government spending some 24%, and with the state set again to have a budget surplus in the hundreds of millions (if not billions) one wonders why the government feels we need to continue to “build the revenue.”

The state has enough revenue.  When will the taxpayers get a break?

What’s more, saying that we can’t talk about tax cuts now because we’re only a few months into the biennium is a little bogus given that AFP’s effort is an initiated measure.  In order to get the measure on the ballot we (full disclosure: I’m on the measure’s sponsoring committee) have to be collecting signatures now.  That’s just the way it works.

And I’d note that if Hoeven, or even a significant number of his Republican colleagues in the legislature, were at all credible on the tax issue this initiated measure wouldn’t need to happen.  We’d have gotten significant tax relief in the last legislative session.  As it stands now, when the Governor promises tax relief, why should anyone believe him?

Thoughts by the Whistler

If Governor Hoeven were worried about having ‘money in the bank’ then why is he taking money out of the Permanent Oil Tax Trust Fund. 

The Governor’s rhetoric does not match his actions.  He’s a spender through and through.