THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410150021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Maryland state Del. Ellen Sauerbrey wasn't given much of a chance against Rep. Helen Delich Bentley in the Republican primary for governor of our neighboring state. Then Sauerbrey began talking about the need for cutting taxes. Rep. Bentley and all the right people scoffed. The voters didn't. Sauerbrey won and is now given a better than even shot against Democrat Parris Glendenning in a strongly Democratic state.
If what happened in Maryland were an isolated incident, it would be easy to dismiss as a local phenomenon. Tax-cutting fever, however, has spread to gubernatorial races across the landscape. The tax-cut issue is proving so powerful that Republicans are given a chance at winning a majority of the nation's governorships for the first time in a generation. Another case in point: George Pataki.
Who is George Pataki? Polls say 30 percent of registered New York voters have no idea, yet they are planning to vote for the unknown state senator anyway. Pataki is proposing a Reagan-style 25 percent cut in New York's onerous tax rates, the highest in the nation. Gov. Mario Cuomo is hardly in a position to criticize Pataki: Cuomo is offering his own (less generous) tax-cut plan. Polls say the challenger is a likely winner.
Even more radical plans are afoot. In Connecticut, Republican former Rep. John Rowland is promising the abolition of the state income tax that incumbent Gov. Lowell Weicker imposed nearly four years ago. Weicker prudently chose to retire rather than defend his action.
In New Jersey, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman started the trend last year when she did the seemingly impossible by defeating incumbent Democratic Gov. James Florio, who had tried to balance his budget with massive tax increases. Whitman is now doing her best to keep her promise (although she might have to stretch her tax-cut plan to three years from two). New Jersey is growing again and this year is expected to create as many as 80,000 new jobs, according to state projections.
Tax cuts, combined with spending restraint, pay for themselves through stronger economic growth and greater prosperity. Those who say the government cannot ``afford'' to cut taxes really seem to be saying that government must keep doing all the things it is now doing, world without end, amen.
If the tax-cut sweep turns out to be anywhere near as extensive as it is shaping up to be, then tax cuts will certainly be on the agenda for the 1996 presidential campaign. Don't be surprised if, after Nov. 8, somebody in the White House pulls out the film of President John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech calling for income tax cuts and pops it into President Clinton's VCR. by CNB