Governor Ernie Fletcher is back in the national news. This time it's not his airplane causing a ruckus, but his train wreck of a tax plan. Having already raised the hackles of Grover Norquist, Fletcher has now gotten the attention of National Taxpayers Union lobbyist Paul Gessing in a National Review magazine column.
Gessing calls Fletcher's plan bad economics and bad politics, saying "(Fletcher) has upset several business and taxpayer constituencies on the right, while not making any friends on the left."
At issue is the revenue neutral approach, which raises some taxes and lowers some others. While suggesting that the plan is too complicated for anyone to know if it is truly revenue neutral, Gessing suggests Fletcher would have done well to just cut spending and decrease the size of government in the name of "consistent conservatism." We agree.
