As if they have any say over the matter of a State Income Tax?

Lets give a hand to Dr. Bob Bullen, County Commissioner

Our County Commission has a lot more to worry about than 'sending a message' on how they feel about the State Income tax. February 16, 2001 DNJ: Commission says no to state income tax: Some members say is vote not a county issue By Bryan Brooks, DNJ Staff writer. "In a speech that referenced the Romans and quoted Abe Lincoln and Mark Twain, Bullen said some commissioners were trying to distract the public from other issues."

Here is Dr. Bullen's 'speech' in its entirety:

Fellow Commissioners, its with a great deal of discomfort and sadness that I take the floor to make these comments, but I can't sit here any longer and let all of this pass without saying what actually is going on, so I am going to ask your indulgence and allowing me to refer to a few note cards because I think the points I have to make are much more important than how I say them, and I am not here to try to make an eloquent statement and I couldn't make an eloquent statement if I tried but I think it is important that these points be made and they be heard so I ask you to bear with me if I refer to my notes.

This motion isn't about the state income tax at all. This commission has stated its views many times individually, the voters in the last election endorsed candidates that did not want a state income tax, we've spoken with our individual delegation and they're all committed not to have a state income tax, every observer and written article by political analysts say that this is dead in the legislature, so why are we having this resolution tonight?

Well I will tell you why we are having this resolution tonight. This is a desperate act of a few desperate politicians trying to cover certain misdeeds that have been going on in this commission for nearly four years. Its a direct attempt to divert the public's attention to what actually has been going on in here, for example realigning districts during the middle of a term. What else is this all about? This is about self-preservation in office, trying to maintain your seat in office and finding a way to do it. This is also about restoring tarnished reputations that some have up here now, and actually the reputation of this commission hasn't been too good the last four years. So what are we seeing?

We're seeing the oldest trick in a politician's handbook of deceitful and treacherous ideas. It goes back, and I know some of you may laugh, but you can trace this back to 300 B.C., the Romans were doing the same thing, trying to deceive the public by drawing attention away from what it was actually doing. Now how do you do this? How do you do this? Well, the first thing you do is you take the offensive. The best defense is a good offensive. So how do you divert public's attention?

Well, you search around and you look around and you find a popular topic and attach yourself to it. Now this will immediately make you look better so that's what we've done in this case, we've found a popular topic, everybody knows the income tax in unpopular. Well, the train has already left the station on that one, so all you can do is run and try to get on the train as best you can, and when you get on there, attach yourself to this issue, make yourself feel like you are the champion of this, and run to the front of the train, run to the front of the parade, and make yourself the leader, make yourself appear that you are the leader and that this is your issue and that you're speaking for the public. Not only that, you claim leadership for doing this, you're the leader in this great fight. While you're at it, you can exaggerate all kind of claims at what you are doing and what you are trying to do and all your accomplishments.

Take the next step, you don't stop here, you try to make this a major issue in the next election and thats what one of our commissioners has done. Even though this is not our direct responsibility, they are trying to make this a direct issue in the next election, even though it doesn't pertain to the duties of office in here.

All right, the next thing to do is to play on public fear. We certainly are seeing this again, playing on public fear, and while you're doing it, make a nice attack on the press. We've seen that as well, attack the press as well.

Label, tag and smear and misrepresent those who are repulsed by your deeds in office. Thats another part of the offensive, keep it up. In everything you can, try to take criticism away from what you have been doing. Now, what we ought to be doing up here is devoting our energy to those things that are within our realm of possibility, and we haven't been doing very well with some of these.

We need to take the energy thats going into this discussion on the income tax and putting it in and finding out how we are going to solve our rabies control site. We seem to have a real problem with that. The next one is we can't seem to find courtroom space we badly need. Judges have been telling us about. We know that. There is tremendous traffic congestion in this county and we don't really have a plan to deal with that, although we have made some effort. Public safety. This is not the safest county in Tennessee. We are trying to make it a safe county but we have public safety problems. The future disposal of garbage. This is one that is not a popular issue to attach yourself to but this is one that is going to be in front of us in the next three or four years. Those of you who have been on that committee know the reports we have been hearing on that.

So actually this resolution about the income tax probably ought to be renamed to 'The Self-Preservation-In-Office Act' or we might call it 'Let's Trick the Public One More Time Resolution'. Either one of these things will tell you that what this resolution is all about is control and power and we've seen for the last four years what that has meant up here, about control and power. We've got small group of commissioners that would not tolerate dissenting viewpoint of any type. We have had a small group of commissioners that would not tolerate compromise of any type. We have had a small group of commissioners that are all knowing and know it all.

And that reminds me of a little story about Mark Twain at one time. Mark Twain had to sit at a dinner with this fellow who just knew it all, he had all the answers. And after a while he said, "Mr. Twain, did you know that sugar is the only word in the English language that starts with SU but has the SH sound" and Mark Twain looked at him and said "Are you sure?" Now, you think about that. Now I'm asking some of these commissioners that seem to have all the answers to everything, are you sure you know what the public really wants? Now when a good plan comes out of the legislature, the public is capable of instantly changing its opinion when they see what is best for them. If you really wanted to help out our citizens, and you were so concerned with our citizens, perhaps you should have made a long time ago a resolution to take the sales tax off of food and clothing, which is absolutely killing our middle class people and the people on lower incomes in this county. We are one of the few states in the nation that still persist in that. Perhaps we will come up with a better plan, but right now people are wising up that this is a serious crisis in the legislature, and they have got two choices that may come our way that we may not like. One of them is a sales tax increase, and I don't think any of you want a sales tax increase, and the other one is the one that will have some of you in here screaming instantly, and they are talking about it in the legislature, and thats cutting hundreds of millions of dollars to local governments. Telling us to fill state mandates with local money. I don't think any of you are for that.

All right, I have just mentioned this is about power and control. If you don't believe me, just think of this. The thirst for power is like fire. What does fire do? At first it warms you. Then it scorches you. And then it finally consumes you. You are totally consumed by the quest for power. Now we have seen this with the tactics that are taking place with this resolution. First, they know no shame with some of these things. They have attacked our biggest ally, County Technical Services, that have done so much to help us with private acts. What other county is doing this? Name me a county that is attacking this organization. You can't name one. They have helped us with our lobbying group.

What shame? Playing on public fear for personal gain. That is exactly what this is. Have you no shame to do this? The third, trying to divide the commission by making this an election issue in the year 2002, have you no shame as to try to put commissioners in that type of situation, and finally have you no shame, have you no modesty, in writing letters to the editor where you promote yourself, brag on yourself, and then misrepresent the record of others, have you no shame, have you no modesty when you do that?

I will vote no on this because it has nothing to do with the income tax. It has everything to do with trying to divert the public's attention to what has been going on up here for several years, particular the last two and a half years. I want to say that shortly that I will sit down and that possibly several will get up and start an attack on me, which, that will be fine, I am used to it, that is part of it, but we will have people here that are already saying that they are defenders of the public treasury, that they are the ones who are speaking for the public, they have forgotten their other fellow commissioners who have been doing that for years. Forgetting the work of your fellow commissioners is a sad thing. Regardless of what I say, I think I have tried my best to expose to some people what people in private are saying, that this isn't about the state income tax at all, it is about trying to save the reputation of a few people who have been misbehaving in public office, and what you have seen with this is why the public is so cyncical about politicians and why people in public have lost confidence in politicians because of this kind of cynical activity. And I will close in saying that Abe Lincoln had it right, You can fool part of the people part of the time but you can't fool all the people all of the time, and I don't think you are going to fool all our citizens with people trying to wrap themselves in an issue to protect what has really been going on up here. And with that I will give the floor to whoever is next, thank you for listening.

This editorial in the February 22, 2001 DNJ summed it up pretty well: Income tax vote purely political