Glad to hear that the original flat tax "deal" failed. I'm a policy wonk, so I like the flat tax proposal (especially the revenue-negative part), but I don't know how legislators can tell their constituents that they voted for a giant sales tax increase now, in return for a possible flat tax that might go into effect in 2012. If a legislator told me, "You might get a flat tax in 2012," I'd tell him or her, "Great, and I might vote for you--in 2012. But not in 2010."

The counter-offer from Rep. Frank Antenori, et al, looked pretty good, however: according to their proposal, if the sales tax went to the ballot and won, then the flat tax would go into effect in January 2010. If the sales tax failed at the ballot, the flat tax would go into effect in 2012. That's pretty close to breaking even, in my book.

And, I find the apparent demise of Sen. Pamela Gorman's SB1466 very strange in an ostensibly conservative legislature. SB1466 is modeled after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s highly successful privatization model, which helped his administration privatize over 130 government services and activities and saved taxpayers over $550 million.

More about the privatization model from Reason's Len Gilroy:

http://reason.org/news/show/1007034/sharpening-the-budget-saw-in-virginia

--Tom Jenney (remote from Santiago de Chile)