By way of the Conservative Grapevine, we see Hewitt has an interview up with Huckabee. [1]
Huckabee has some serious problems, particularly with his insisting on raising gasoline taxes… like that’s what the American family needs is more taxes… over and about the $3.20 we’re already paying. And that’s not the only tax he’s raised, of course. There’s a list of all of it you can get…(PDF) [2]
Here’s a little:
Governor Huckabee touts himself as an economic conservative, writing in his biography that he “pushed through the Arkansas legislature the first major, broad-based tax cuts in state history” and “led efforts to establish a Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights” early on as governor (Arkansas Times 09/22/05), but he only offers a small piece of the picture. It is true that Governor Huckabee fought for an $80 million tax cut package in 1997 that was passed by the Arkansas legislature (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98); cut the state capital gains tax in 1999 (The Commercial Appeal 02/29/99); and passed the Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights in the same year, limiting the increase in property taxes to 10% a year for individuals and 5% per taxing unit (AP 03/16/99). However, his record over the rest of his ten-year tenure tells a starkly different story.
- Immediately upon taking office, Governor Huckabee signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission and the Department of Parks and Tourism (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98).
- He supported an internet sales tax in 2001 (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07).
- He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002 (Arkansas News Bureau 08/30/02).
- He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003) (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07), and a $5.25 per day bed-tax on private nursing home patients in 2001 (Arkansas New Bureau 03/01/01).
- He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements (Arkansas News Bureau 12/05/02).
- He opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003 (Arkansas News Bureau 11/21/03).
- In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law (The Gurdon Times 03/02/04).
By the end of his ten-year tenure, Governor Huckabee was responsible for a 37% higher sales tax in Arkansas, 16% higher motor fuel taxes, and 103% higher cigarette taxes according to Americans for Tax Reform (01/07/07), garnering a lifetime grade of D from the free-market Cato Institute.
Not my first choice for the job… and no, I don’t care what his excuse is. He’s still better than any of the Democrats, but not much.