Climate denial is passé.
Especially in Tennessee and Hamilton County where the denial that our state and county elected officials seem to really excel at is revenue vs. need.
Several members of Hamilton County’s state legislative delegation defended their ‘just-say-no’ votes and stances on everything from Insure Tennessee to fully funding education to future consideration of gas taxes and sales tax reform.
Their standard answers during a two-hour discussion Tuesday with the Times Free Press involving Sens. Bo Watson and Todd Gardenhire, along with Reps. Gerald McCormick, Patsy Hazlewood and JoAnne Favors, was best summed up by Rep. Watson:
“Everyone seems to want to make this a revenue problem. It’s not. Growing our economy should add revenue [rather than raising taxes],” said Watson, adding that the state’s budget is currently based on a 3.7 percent increase in revenue from one of the best state economy-growth periods in years.