4 February 2019 — 1656 mst

Only five Republicans voted against granting
a minority a legislative veto on tax increases

Today the MT House voted 53–46 to approve HB-148, Rep. Forrest Mandeville’s bill to require a two-thirds majority in each legislative chamber to increase a tax or to create a new tax. But only a simple majority would be required for lowering a tax.

No Democrat voted for the bill. Five Republicans voted against it:

For your convenience, I’ve prepared an Excel spreadsheet listing all of our blessing in the MT House, their districts, cities, and party, and how they voted.

The bill nows goes to Montana’s Senate, where it may pass on a largely partyline vote. Will Gov. Bullock sign it? No. In fact, he may be tempted to borrow one of Brian Schweitzer’s VETO branding irons and do the honors on the steps of the capitol. Should such a thought cross his mind, I encourage him to succumb to it.

And I encourage him to issue a strong veto message. Our political system is predicated on rule by a simple majority, with a few constitutional requirements for a supermajority. Creating and/or increasing taxes is not one of them. Nor should it be. Revenue must be raised when required, and just one-third of the legislature should not have the power to veto a tax increase. Mandeville’s bill stands the principle of majority rule on its head. If a tax increased or created by a simple majority offends the voters, they can vote for new legislators in the next election.

What Mandeville and 52 of his fellow Republicans in the MT House want, of course, is to make raising or creating taxes virtually impossible, thereby making impossible the funding of new programs, or increasing the funding for existing programs. It’s a means of hardwiring into Montana’s statutes the starve the beast tax reduction strategy popularized by the Prince of Selfishness, Grover Norquist.

A successful starve the beast campaign will reduce, or at least not raise, taxes on the wealthy. It will also literally starve the poor, and deprive them of medical care, turn good roads into boulevards of potholes, allow bridges and dams to crumble, let school buildings decline into dangerous disrepair, ensure that Montana’s children are taught by grossly underpaid teachers, and turn the Treasure State into L’état Misérable. It’s a way of slowly committing civic suicide.