Shaun Kenney was one of the anti-taxers. He challenged Bobby Orrick. Here’s what he posted on another blog.
We did focus on the tax hike, and no one cared.
Now that’s not to say it wasn’t an issue. For conservatives, as well as moderates, we were all upset with the tax increases.
The real question voters were asking was “what do we do about the problem?” Collectively, while I agree wholeheartedly with the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, we didn’t have a single voice on how to solve the problem. Sure we can cut off the oxygen and put out the fire, but to what ends?
I think voters are seriously looking for answers to the questions regarding transportation, education, and the like. TABOR is a good start. Devoting 65% of every dollar to the classroom is another (Virginia only allocates 61.6% on average). Restructuring VDOT so that rather than operating from the top-down, localities set the needs and agenda and VDOT chimes in. True tax reform that abolishes the car tax, property tax, estate tax, and comes up with a more equitable system of taxation that works at the local level first.
Those are ideas. Those are solutions. While we aggressively promoted them in the 54th, conservatives statewide didn’t speak with a single voice.
While crossover hurt us and may have cost us a few HOD elections, we have to get back into the mentality that we are indeed a minority, and we need to offer a solution first before we offer a mantra.
Well, yes, we’ve been trying to tell you. But it’s not that nobody cares. They care too much to listen to simplistic mantras. And still Kenney talks vaguely of giving lcoalities more say in how transportation dollars are spent, as if that cuts expenditures. Note, too, that one of his solutions is to abolish various taxes and replace them with … what?
And if you think TABOR is the answer, read this.