Are taxes too high? That’s a question that governments and citizens, Republicans and Democrats, have debated for centuries. The answer is different for different people; it depends on your definition of “too high.” Any tax is probably more than we’d prefer to pay. We could say that all taxes are “too high.” But there isn’t any magic amount that taxes absolutely shouldn’t exceed. Naturally, people would prefer not to pay any tax, especially one that isn’t going to directly benefit them. That’s what makes Constitutional Initiative 75 so dangerous. There are many taxes that benefit the majority — roads, fire departments, police forces — but there are also hundreds of taxes that are extremely important that don’t directly benefit the majority. People without dependant children aren’t benefitted by the university or school bonds, and people may not understand why certain roads need to be paved, playgrounds constructed, or public buildings renovated. That’s what makes a republican (i.e. representative) government so great. It provides for all the special interest groups out there — the people who benefit from things like new sewers, roads, or other public works. The “mob rule” that would result from CI-75 couldn’t provide for many of those things. If CI-75 passes, don’t count on repaved roads, new sewers, or even top-notch schools. No one wants to vote for a tax that won’t benefit them in any way. If faced with a tax that he or she knows little about, the average voter will reject it. Voter may pay fewer taxes, but the programs from which he or she will benefit — for example, repaving the road the voter lives on to eliminate eight-inch-deep ruts — would quite likely be voted down. In a representative democracy, special interests like these are taken care of because lawmakers compromise. If a legislator from one district wants to repave the road, while a legislator from another district wants to install a sewer in a new subdivision, the two compromise and the new spending measures are included in a spending bill — which their respective parties then pass. We don’t need to “protect” ourselves from unfair taxes — that’s why we have elected officials. If the legislature isn’t doing what we want it to, we can elect new representatives. We don’t have to steal power from the legislature. We can turn them out of office if we don’t agree with their policies. Representative democracies protect minority groups from unfair laws, or in this case, unfair taxation. The “mob rule” that CI-75 would create was what the framers of the Constitution wanted to avoid. A CI-75 type of government didn’t make sense then, and now, 200 years later, it doesn’t make sense for Montana. |
