TPI Referendum

During a brief visit to Centennial Park for Healthy Howard Day, I spotted two people collecting signatures for the Taxpayer Protection Initiative. This is the first time I had seen anyone gathering signatures for this particular referendum.

I spoke with one of the signature collectors named David. He understood what the TPI was attempting to accomplish (requiring a super majority of council votes to raise taxes) and seemed to be a good ambassador for the idea. At no time did he say anything inaccurate or misleading about the TPI. He also understood the high rejection rate of signatures during the Board of Elections verification process.

If you don't think the average attendee at Healthy Howard Day would be particularly receptive to TPI, you are correct. At the time I spoke with the signature gatherer, he had collected only 4 signatures. I didn't sign (I lied and said I had already done so) but I am not opposed to this referendum and might sign it at some point in the future. Sure, it's an election year gimmick, but I believe that it should be more difficult to raise taxes than cut spending, especially when most of us pay such high taxes already. Therefore, I think the TPI puts a reasonable safeguard in place.