The magic cure-all offered by those who favor minimalist government is a constitutionally mandated tax freeze. And Republican state legislators were back at work last week on their latest version — now called the Taxpayers Protection Amendment, or TPA.
This time, though, they’re running into inconvenient facts that reveal the real ingredients of this odious unguent.
As GOP leaders opened invitation-only hearings on their proposal last week, Professor Andrew Reschovsky of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a disturbing analysis of the TPA’s likely consequences.