How can the chair of the Tenn. Senate's Judiciary Committee be so unfamiliar with the US Constitution, and in particular, its fourteenth amendment, which says in part, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Senator Beavers' bill would do just exactly what the fourteenth amendment says can't be done. Why do these people keep coming up with this stuff? How much time will be wasted considering this bill? Surely it won't get to the point where a federal court will have to waste its time eviscerating this nonsense.

No secret... Ramsey is the last person on earth to go to with any appeal that doesn't start at corporations. He is the epitome of good old boy corpotatocracy. Just look at his record. Has he ever supported ANY environmental position? Ask him where he stands on the Scenic Vistas Act.

This is just nuts - and something else for the national media to mock us with.

Sigh.

Whoever submitted this amendment was most likely elected by a majority of voters somewhere in our state. Is the submitter out of control, or do the majority of his constituents think this is a good idea?

Even Ron Ramsey couldn't swallow this one; Beavers withdraws bill.

I was just wondering if this was one lone aberration or a representative dutifully expressing the will of some seriously flawed voters.

The majority of her constituents voted for Mae Beavers because of her magic 'R'. That and a pulse were all that was required.

From Stateline.org, May 27, 1999--

Tennessee lawmakers abruptly ended a special session last week devoted to studying the tax reform proposal, handing the governor a stinging defeat by refusing to even vote on his plan. Sundquist had worked closely with Democrats to build consensus for the controversial plan, but made the call to "pull the plug" after having the rug pulled out from under him by the state Republican party chairman.

Sundquist's tax reform plan, which included a 4% income tax and a rollback in state sales taxes, died after state GOP chairman Chip Saltsman publicly reiterated the party's traditional opposition to an income tax. GOP lawmakers questioned the political consequences of voting for an income tax and quickly closed ranks against the proposal.

Democratic state Senator Bob Rochelle, known in Tennessee as one of the governor's harshest critics, had been instrumental in lining up Democratic support for the plan.

This accomplished attorney and former chair for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (which produced several reports during this era documenting the inadequacy of TN's tax structure) I *think* chose not to run for the District 17 seat in 2002, at which point Mae Beavers was elected.

Brother Bob did run against Beavers for the District 17 seat in 2006, but lost.

So who elected Mae Beavers to office? District 17 voters who really, really don't want any state income tax--and who remain deeply suspicious of Brother Bob.

Oh, on the contrary.

I first came to admire Bob Rochelle for the excellent work he did as chair of TACIR.

Within months of my consuming all those TACIR reports, I had a couple of opps to meet him in person (not that he'd likely remember me), when he attended events planned by Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, on whose local organizing committee I served here in Knoxville. It was on those occassions that we greeted him with a warm "hello, Brother Bob."

I liked him very much and was bitterly disappointed to see Mae Beavers take over that seat.