Earth to Pawlenty: Abort tax pledge! Abort!

Colorado gov backpedals on "TABOR"

One of the things Dave Durenberger mentioned in an interview with City Pages a few weeks back was how a "no new taxes" pledge by any political leader displayed a stunning lack of vision. In the outtakes of the interview, Durenberger rattled off a number of Republican governors in conservative states, like Wyoming and Indiana, who had bitten the bullet and raised taxes in order to bail their budgets and programs out of financial ruin.

Suffice to say our own Governor Hockeypuck has not yet seen the light, despite the fact that Minnesota's facing another year with seemingly insurmountable budget shortfall. (Hey, there's always gambling!)

Pawlenty might want to take note of the news out of Colorado, where Governor Bill Owens has reconsidered his stance on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (ridiculously acronymed "TABOR")--and now has to cruise around the state asking folks to forget all about those spending limits he was talking about in his first term. Two different stories, one from the Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo and the Washington Post, tell the plight of Owens, and point to several other states where anti-tax crusades have proven unfeasible at best.