Jericho, Tennessee

...Valentine advised his troops to keep their powder dry-and some gas in their tanks...

...One of them fainted, and two others had to be hospitalized lor chest pains and similar ailments...

...I had him on the show one day and he bristled at the idea that we should cut spending instead of instituting a state income tax...

...Besides that, an election was coming up, and the income tax had become a major issue...

...Kentucky, a state very similar to Tennessee except that it has an income tax, has had considerably weaker economic performance since 1980...

...In this case, Republican Governor Don Sundquist promised never to countenance such a tax, yet two months alter telling the General Assembly that state finances were rosy, he pronounced a crisis and called lor the imposition of a state income tax...

...The tax light is interesting lor a couple of reasons...

...It was like that scene in the Frankenstein movie when the townspeople went alter the monster...

...I went to the mike and told everyone they needed to go inside and tell them how we really feel," Valentine says...

...The tax would supposedly target families that made over $100,000, but Valentine argued that this was merely a selling point...

...Raymond Baker, a local political consultant and anti-tax partisan, warned Governor Sundquist that he wasn't wanted at Republican campaign events...

...By 12:30 there were hundreds of cars and trucks circling the capitol...

...The final lesson is that while Al's been put to pasture, the taxing impulse remains very deep...

...A lew cars showed up...

...In the 1990's, even without an income tax, Tennessee's per capita tax receipts have grown 12th fastest among the 50 states...

...Without his efforts, says State Rep...

...The thought that the legislature would meet in a special Saturday session and try to sneak one into the books was crazy...

...While threats of an income tax have been around lor years, Valentine recently explained over a short stack at Nashville's Pancake Pantry, the real fireworks began on June 9, 2000...

...I've had people come up to me since the election and say the Republicans didn't gain any seats...

...In my quest to find the truth, I went back and did some more research...

...It was 'Uh-oh, they know," says Valentine, who stayed on his post lor eight hours, at which time the legislature called it quits lor the day...

...Nor is the man on the street thrilled by the possibility of an income tax...

...A sales tax and income tax adds up to double taxation in my book...

...What we have here in Tennessee, he said, is spending lever- a view held by Senator Blackburn and a small group of anti-tax legislators...

...director il he could call a "special session" of the Phil Valentine show from the capitol steps the next morning...

...A better educated Tennessee is possible, but it can't happen without your help...

...That, of course, depends on your vantage point...

...This was the big day...

...I also understand that specially equipped bathrooms are necessary...

...They were making a huge amount of noise...

...Their votes would have put the tax over the top...

...Proponents aren't so sure...

...According to the Department of Education, UT students pay $651 less in annual tuition than the national average...

...Valentine exhorted his listeners, who were lurther instructed to circle the capitol building while sounding their horns...

...This was a very polarizing issue...

...There is also the problem that in 1998 we were told we were better off than ever...

...DAVE SHILETT is a writer in Midlothian, Virginia...

...Inside the capitol, the noise level was incredible," says state Senator Blackburn, who denies through a smile that she is responsible lor tipping off Valentine, though she does acknowledge sending out a citizens' alert to the 4,000 people on her e-mail list...

...I don't think the legislature will ever be the same...

...The speech made him a hero to many, but others began treating Valentine as if he had the plague...

...While the madhouse reinforced the power of Americans' rights to assemble, it stampeded the sheeplike General Assembly into adopting a craven stopgap measure that set back the cause of tax reform another dangerous year...

...I am asking you to help me raise $80,000 in the next three weeks...

...I found some incredible stuff," he says...

...Proponents kept up their efforts, which required Valentine to broadcast from the capitol in double shilts-9-12 in the mornings, then a break lor the Rush Limbaugh show, then a return from 3-6...

...June 10 was to be Pearl Harbor Day lor Tennessee taxpayers, who wouldn't know they had been hit until the ink was dry...

...Gripped by a creative urge, Valentine entered his home studio, where he usually occupied himself with song parodies...

...Alex Haley grew up in a log cabin," says Valentine...

...I also broke out my calculator and reached a startling conclusion...

...It was a beautiful sight to see...

...There was also an expenditure of nearly a million dollars lor work on author Alex Haley's boyhood home...

...That's the sound of freedom," he had responded...

...A letter from Senator Bob Rochelle, which Valentine read over the air, asked lobbyists to send in money for a public enlightenment campaign: The process will be time consuming and costly, but I think worth it...

...That's true...

...I think it is a tax idea we should definitely look at," she said during the campaign...

...But the overall problem is one of philosophy...

...Valentine and Americans for Tax Reform co-sponsored a notax pledge, which many candidates signed, even some who had supported the tax...

...He challenged me to show him how to do that," says Valentine, whose subsequent indictment of the budget was so compelling that he was invited to address the Senate Finance Committee on November 16,1999...

...As the din grew, the plan lor an early alternoon vote dimmed...

...The song-"What's That Noise...

...There's a storm a-brewing...

...We don't...

...The absence of an income tax in Tennessee gives Tennessee a large competitive advantage over other states with which it competes lor jobs and businesses," Moore and Vedder found...

...Beavers, from the same class as Eckles, signed the pledge and won by a huge margin over a tax supporter...

...Senator Blackburn agrees that the politics of personal destruction are alive and well, but adds that opposition to a state income tax will remain a winning issue...

...Rep...

...Tax reform is the new code word for income tax," chuckles Valentine, who says he looks forward to a new year of living dangerously...

...The American Spectator o February 2001 25...

...Beeb Birtles, a founding member of the Little River Band, agreed to play guitar and sing backup...

...led by a Nashville talk-radio host named Phil Valentine, the mob bared its incisors, and the elite blinked...

...It's freedom ringing...

...In a series of interviews, several state officeholders said they expect the issue to surface when the legislature convenes its new session...

...Garth Brooks could pay that out of his front pocket...

...Valentine has had his hands in many pies-playing a role in Martin Sheen's A letter From Death Row, doing commercials lor McDonald's, offering his talents to a long list of charity fundraisers, and winning Best Talk Show Host in the New York Festival International Radio Competition the past two years...

...I think this is a debate we can continue to win...

...Moore and Vedder also found that "the premise of proincome tax forces in Tennessee that the state's revenues have been growing too slowly is contradicted by the evidence...

...During one break, Valentine went home to take a nap but could not achieve lull slumber...

...Wake up grandma...

...There is no question that we have both a desire and an obligation to take care of these people...

...Tennessee's tax revenues have climbed at twice the rate of inflation plus population growth...

...Son of a former U.S...

...Valentine began his broadcast at about noon...

...Beavers says...

...Tuition at Ole Miss runs $3,054 per year...

...They had their backers in the teacher and government employee unions, along with academics from the University of Tennessee, many of whom were no doubt milled by another point Valentine made in his Finance Committee speech, and many times therealter: Part of the cry lor an income tax has been to fund higher education...

...It looked like they had the votes," Rep...

...But like other tax opponents, she insists the issue is far from dead - and that it has changed the nature of Tennessee politics...

...Then came the deluge...

...Ron Krasinski, drummer for Olivia Newton-John, Seals & Crofts, and Sheena Easton, joined up, as did Bill Cuomo, a keyboardist who wrote the hit song "Oh, Sherrie," played with REO Speedwagon, and produced for luminaries such as Barbra Streisand, whom Valentine agrees would not be happy that her former producer had signed on with the forces of reaction...

...Subsequent calls, however, confirmed the tip...

...Credible or not, tax advocates were determined to prevail...

...The words of a state employee kept echoing in his ears: "What's that noise...

...We have so much to do in Tennessee...

...Between 1980 and 1998 the per capita economic growth rate of Tennessee was 47 percent compared to 36 percent in Kentucky...

...Her bid for a fourth two-year House term was opposed by Donna Rowland, who had lost to Eckles two years before...

...The people are watching, And they know what you're doing...

...I talked to people who said the lieutenant governor was in the chamber saying 'We can't do this...

...We had hundreds of protesters in the legislative square," he says...

...It was an incredible scene...

...Valentine and company did not seem to be getting through...

...Arriving at the scene, Valentine maintained a positive attitude...

...There were a million bucks lor improvements to the Country Music Hall of lame...

...At the top of her voice, A God-given choice, To take control of destiny Valentine knocked out another verse and called on a few friends to help him put the song in play...

...Mae Beavers, tax advocates would probably have won...

...The new buzzword is that if you're against the income tax, you're antipublic education...

...Gore was the next item on the menu, and he was chewed up and spit out with extreme malice...

...congressman from North Carolina (Nashville, N.C., as it happens), Valentine says his great uncle, General Frank Armstrong, was the inspiration lor the book and movie Twelve O'Clock High...

...The next possible vote would be on Monday...

...We've got one of the highest gasoline taxes in America, plus a sales tax, and now they want an income tax on top of that," says Fred Foster, a legendary Nashville producer (Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, among others...

...If there was any doubt about AI's imminent rejection by the body politic, it should have been laid to rest months earlier by a splendid political riot over the state income tax, pitting haughty and secretive elites-known of course as reformers-against a truly populist resistance that quickly evolved into a ramparts-storming mob...

...Beavers says Sundquist was booed at Bush rallies (and later at the state's election night victory party at Nashville's Wild Horse Saloon...

...Two months later, we were told we were in a crisis situation...

...Valentine's conclusion: The state could have increased spending at twice the rate of inflation over the past two years and still come out $1.4 billion in the black...

...I have two children in public schools, so of course I'm not taking that too seriously...

...The entire middle class was in the crosshairs...

...He was booed at Bush rallies (and later at the state's election night victory party at Nashville's Wild Horse Saloon...

...Why should taxpayers get hit lor that bill...

...Your contribution of $1,000 will help me put into motion my strategy for success...

...she had asked of the distant honking...

...The income tax idea was dead...

...I even talked to the gentleman who sells them the bathtubs...

...Valentine was chatting with callers when his producer messaged him with an urgent tip: A capitol source had just called to say the legislature planned to vote in an income tax the next day...

...Everyone knows she's there but doesn't talk about her...

...took two weeks to hit number one on Tower Records' Local Top Ten...

...Tax advocates simply want a bigger government...

...His critics concur...

...It reminds us that political elites can change their stripes very quickly...

...Some terrified members had to be hospitalized...

...I certainly understand that the center serves some of our special needs citizens...

...Valentine, who makes no fetish of modesty, is all nods as is the national group Americans lor Tax Reform, which named him a "Hero of the Taxpayers...

...In quick order, an anthem was born: Did you hear what the man said...

...As for Valentine, he's basking in glory, as well as mud...

...On cue, hundreds of protesters stormed the building...

...They were carrying hand-made signs and shouting...

...What'sThat Noise...

...Rep...

...Valentine got the nod, and thus began a populist siege of a state capitol that was to be much louder and better attended than the Boston Tea Party...

...One local publication just gave him its Boner Award...

...l this story has a single hero, it is Phil Valentine, host of a daily talk show on Nashville's WLAC (1510 on the AM dial...

...Sunday remains the Sabbath in Tennessee...

...Tuition at the University of Kentucky runs $3,296...

...He's like what Ross Perot referred to as the 'crazy aunt in the attic,'" Baker told the Tennessean...

...I couldn't believe it," said Valentine...

...Around Tennessee, Valentine is known as the man who dropped the big bomb on the state income tax...

...We're lying in wait...

...Valentine's address to the finance committee also included discussion of a proposal to spend $500,000 to renovate lour bathrooms at a state development center- a mundane, though telling, item: That comes to $125,000 per bathroom, more than many houses cost in Tennessee...

...n inspiration flashed, best summed up in an old Japanese expression: Banzai...

...The passive days of old are through, They've found the strength, They're standing up to you CHORUS: What's That Noise...

...Mary Ann Eckles of Murfreesboro was one exception...

...I even ran into several groups of students from UT who were lobbying the General Assembly lor more money because they felt their tuition was too high...

...Valentine wasn't the only private citizen arguing against the tax...

...On Monday morning, June 13, tax proponents had one other thing going their way: an apparent winning majority...

...But proponents had their votes lined up, and seemed to have mentally insulated themselves from the outside agitators...

...Tuition at UT is just $2,858 per year...

...If the average UT student worked just 10 hours per week at $5.50 per hour, he would make enough money to pay lor his own tuition, a concept which seems to be foreign to those students walking the halls of the General Assembly with their hands out...

...Given this generous estimate, it appears that the state government is being overcharged by $85,000 per bathroom, or a total of $340,000...

...In fact, he adds, three pro-tax members were stricken that day and could not vote...

...It's liberty singing...

...By passing a tax reform measure we can insure better skills for our citizens, quality health care for our children and a competitive economy that will be conducive to growth without resorting to short term tax schemes which will hurt business in our state...

...This time, Rowland had no trouble winning (though it is also true that several pro-tax legislators did win re-election...

...Sensing an emergency, and perhaps an opportunity, Valentine asked his program 22 February 2001 The American Spectator Valentine's message was simple: Only a very loud public revolt would spook the legislature from digging its mitts deeper into the public's pocket...

...If so, we may see a replay of the past year's drama, which would have at least one benelit: Political theater doesn't get any better than this...

...A lew radio competitors joined the bandwagon, and a later Cato Institute paper by Stephen Moore and Richard Vedder concurred that a state income tax was not only unnecessary, but would be harmful...

...Among other things, he was knocked off the invitation list to the governor's annual Christmas Party...

...He estimated the rest of the bathroom to cost no more than another $20,000, placing the total at a high of $40,000 per bathroom...

...24 February 2001 The American Spectator Governor Sundquist was warned that he wasn't wanted at Republican campaign events...

...The honkies, as I called them, were circling the capitol...

...A legislative aide came skipping across the square just prior to air time and said, "Ooooooh, Phil, big turnout...

...State Sen...

...They came in cars and buses...

...Beavers won't go that far, though the idea brings a twinkle to her eye...

...The mocked Valentine began barking...

...His message was simple: Only a very loud public revolt would spook the legislature from digging its mitts deeper into the public's pocket...

...ith such political and cultural forces arrayed against them, the pro-tax side took a few more swipes at the issue then decided to give it a rest...

...The legislative square was filling with screaming citizens...

...That creates a real credibility problem lor people on that side of the debate...

...They went in and were screaming at legislators...

...BY DAVE SHIPlETT l all the empty dreams inspired by Election 2000, surely the most loolish was Al Gore's expectation that he would win his home state...

...This light also reflects the power of non-establishment media, particularly talk radio, to undermine the best laid plans of legislators and their cheerleaders in the establishment press...

...There was $220,000 lor a new gofl-cart crossing...

...By 12:30 there were hundreds of cars and trucks circling the capitol," he says...

...alentine's anti-tax message had been long in the honing...

...Some called it Divine Intervention...

...I was denounced by colleagues during the debate, and was recently denounced as a right-wing extremist in the Tennessean because I oppose the tax...

...But we completely changed the debate...

...Marsha Blackburn, another tax opponent, agrees that Valentine played a central role...

...Rep...

...Jericho it wasn't-at least initially...

...A former supporter of the Republican governor, Valentine went on the attack alter Sundquist reversed his no-income tax position early in his second term...

...If you look at expenditure growth under this governor, you'll see it went from $13.5 billion to $18.5 billion...

...The American Spectator o February 2001 23 "Edward and I have had a very good year but I'm looking lor 3 a major correction in our marriage during the next quarter...

...Part of the problem is our state health plan, which is more generous than any other plan in the United States, and which clearly needs fixing...

...The legislature should be cutting taxes, not introducing new ones...

...Senator Blackburn, a Republican who once made her living selling books door to door, says she can find no evidence of a funding crisis, though much evidence of a spending surge...

...We can't do this!' I think a lot of them feared that if they passed the tax they might not get out of there alive...

...The barking continued...

...His political instincts are indicated by the fact that his CV lists "collecting Ronald Reagan memorabilia" as his hobby...

...There will be no coup on my watch...

...There was $24 million lor lour golf courses...

...Gore is about as popular in Tennessee as the lowly pinworm, the historic scourge of flatlander and hillbilly alike, and so is his governing philosophy...

...Meanwhile, the local Nashville Scene awarded Valentine its lightly esteemed Boner Award for his efforts: Needless to say, the loudest protesters were those, like talk-radio demagogue-in-training Phil Valentine...

...State Rep...

...He informed me that the special tubs cost around $20,000...

...You need a million bucks to lix up a log cabin...