Voluntary Taxes
December 2001

Recently, Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee announced the creation of his state's "Tax Me More Fund." Huckabee opposes raising taxes in spite of a $142 million budget shortfall for this fiscal year, which ends June 30,2002. The Arkansas Constitution requires a balanced state budget. The fund allows Arkansans to voluntarily contribute to the state's general revenue fund. Huckabee spokesman Jim Harris said the names of the donors and the amounts of their donations would be released to the public once a week.

Guess what? Huckabee said he will not donate to the fund and added that no Arkansans he has met outside of the Capitol have asked him to raise taxes. The next question is, will anyone donate?

Huckabee first announced the "Tax Me More Fund" at a convention of the Arkansas Farm Bureau in Little Rock. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, he responded to laughter in the audience by saying, "I'm as serious as I can be. It's put up or shut up time. Either put up the money, write the check and let us see you're serious or quit telling me Arkansans want their taxes raised," Huckabee said. "Because, I'm convinced that Arkansans would say today, 'my taxes are high enough.'"

And not just Arkansans! I say this citizen of the great state of Ohio thinks taxes are too high also! And I have several friends and acquaintances from many other states that would say the same thing! Where do the media, liberals, and socialists get off thinking that every time the government messes up and spends too much money, we should forgive them and give them more money? Do you think these same liberals would say that when the government has an excess of money that it should all go back to the people? Absolutely not, they would instead go and spend more, just so that they can mess up and then ask for more money the next year. Where does it all end?

Perhaps if more states and the federal government followed Arkansas' governor and created a special fund for when the government messed up, the leaders would quickly realize that the people are NOT happy when they spend, spend , and spend more. Perhaps we should put the entire budget on a voluntary tax fund. Okay, maybe this is not practical, but perhaps if the person paying the tax could dictate what part of the budget his money went towards, we would quickly weed out liberal spending.