(Alexandria, VA) -- While states and localities across the country struggle to rein in rampant budget deficits and rising taxes, the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has released a statement signed by 107 economists proposing a simple but proven-effective solution: hold government to a growth rate citizens can afford. Ballot initiatives in Maine and Washington State will give taxpayers an opportunity to do just that. NTU has nearly 2,000 members in Maine and nearly 11,000 members in Washington State.
"It may not be news that limiting government can help to promote economic growth, but less than two weeks from now citizens in Maine and Washington will have the opportunity to make news of their own -- by joining other states that have put this principle into action," said NTU Vice President for Policy and Communications Pete Sepp. "Mainers and Washingtonians can finally begin to curb elected officials' destructive habit of expanding the public sector beyond the private sector's ability to pay for it." Both states have initiatives on the ballot that would place constraints on the rate at which government can expand (equivalent to annual changes in inflation plus population) and would require consent of a majority of voters for tax increases. The measures would also encourage the accumulation of budget rainy-day funds.
As the economists' open letter affirms, these ballot initiatives come at a time when many states find themselves in "perpetually unstable budget patterns" due to a lack of solid budgeting rules. "Government consumes too much of the economy, in turn leading to less private sector productivity, lower revenues, and bigger deficits -- finally coming full circle to additional tax increases," wrote the signatories, who serve with academic institutions, think tanks, and forecasting firms throughout the country. "Prudent limits, which allow governments to grow only by inflation and population unless voters say otherwise, are workable and flexible tools that prevent fiscal instability and promote economic health."
"Citizens in Maine, Washington, and states across the country can be confident that a large body of research backed by many prestigious members of the economics profession can attest to the importance of common sense limits on runaway government," Sepp concluded. "These reforms could finally get governments to do something they've rarely done before, something families and businesses do every day to make ends meet: budget responsibly."
NTU is a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizen organization founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, smaller government, and economic freedom at all levels.
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