I went to this Conference
as a guest of Grover Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax
Reform based in Washington, DC. ATR offers all expense-paid
scholarships to a number of conservative activists from all over the
country for conferences like those held by the NCSL.
The first meeting attended by scholarship recipients had as subjects
the “Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and
Enforcement Act” and a great presentation by ATR staffer Kelly Cobb
on the FCC’s attempt to regulate the Internet.
On Monday night, Grover treated about 40 of us to dinner at a local
restaurant. Most of the diners were leaders of their Center-right
coalition meetings in states around the country. In Massachusetts
the coalition meeting is called the Friday Morning Group (FMG),
which I’ve hosted the second Friday of the month for almost nine
years. Grover had each of us introduce ourselves and say a few
words. This year I stood up, told them I was from Massachusetts and
that my name was “SCOTT BROWN”. To much laughter and applause, I
said, “I love saying those two words.”
On Tuesday morning, ATR had a working breakfast for scholarship
recipients. During this session, Grover went around the room asking
for updates on Center-right meetings and the political
situations/races in the various states. The updates were quite
positive on conservative gains in Congress, and in the Statehouses,
from virtually every region in the country.
I enjoyed talking with Bill Felkner from Rhode Island and Maine’s
Mary Adams who run the Center -right meetings in their states. My
report on the Friday Morning Group surprised a few when I pointed
out that we were averaging 56 attendees per meeting, up from 30 as
recently as four years ago. Also mentioned was the fact that 106
challenger to incumbents in the MA Legislature have taken the
Taxpayer Protection Pledge. This Pledge asks them to “oppose and
vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.”
The Pledge is a major project of Americans for Tax Reform and
they’re delighted that so many in Massachusetts, a BLUE state, have
signed. I talked about these numbers later with an ATR staffer. He
stated that the Massachusetts group may have the highest number in
the country when you combine average attendance at coalition
meetings and number of Pledge signers.
After this meeting we all attended a debate in one of the rooms at
the Conference center. It was between Grover and some wooly-haired
liberal on the subject: “Online Sales Taxes: Are they the New
taxes?” Grover had a pithy comment or two to say about this
attempted grab for more revenues. Particularly memorable was his
response to a woman’s question about the revenue being needed for
police fire, the children, the handicapped etc. Grover immediately
lit into her about the runaway costs on health insurance, pensions,
and fat salary increases for the public sector unions. He pointed
out that if these costs were in line with the private sector,
there’d be plenty of money available to provide for the truly needy.
That afternoon, I attended a session on State Pensions entitled:
“Current Issues in State Retirement Policy.” There were lots of
figures and theories thrown around at this meeting. However, I heard
little if anything, about solutions. Another session I attended was
entitled: “2010 Fall Election Preview.” This session previewed key
races and ballot issues in the states. The general consensus by the
non-partisan NCSL speaker was that, all things being equal, it looks
like a good year for the Republicans and puts them in great shape
for re-districting.
Oddly enough, for all the political turmoil and unrest this year,
the number of ballot questions was only slightly higher than
average. Also, Massachusetts was the only state that had more than
one ballot question on the same tax, i.e. the state sales tax.
I didn’t spot any Massachusetts legislators at the Conference, but
we know some were there because the casino debate was held until
they got back.
