In a little spur-of-the-moment thing, while stirring a pot of pasta at home, I picked up the phone and dialed 1-800-282-2882. To my surprise, I found myself talking to Mr. Snerdley, and I chimed in with my take on Measure 2. Last week Rush mentioned North Dakota and Measure 2, pointing out that people are way too worried about government getting enough money and not worried enough about keeping their own. That may be the case for some out there, but I had an alternate viewpoint to present, one on which I’ve elaborated here on the ol’ Blog before.

I didn’t get a chance to make one point: if Measure 2 had simply said, “State, county, and local governments may not levy, impose, or collect taxes on property” I would have voted an enthusiastic YES. That would have accomplished the job and allowed the legislature to react accordingly. That would give plenty of time for debate as to how to react and allow for the legislative process to work through any unexpected issues in the process.

Measure 2, however, nosed the issue into a constitutional corner. By prescribing what I call the “magic formula” method of the legislature to fund local government, the measure went too far…irreversibly so. In that case, if adjustments needed to be made, they could only be done by another constitutional measure. What a mess. It also worked retroactively, allowing no time for debate on specifics.

I spoke to a friend who was a huge proponent of Measure 2 from the beginning, and he told me that Measure 2 was simply “too long.” He’s the one that opened my eyes to the possibility above, that it should have simply done away with property taxes and stopped there. Instead, by codifying a solution for property tax replacement into constitutional law, it became a lesson in what I call “bad mechanics” and doomed itself to failure.

Anyway, you can check out the brief transcript of the Rush segment here. Not my most eloquent minute and a half, but at least I didn’t screw up my first nationwide radio appearance.