Does Gibbons' "No New Taxes" Pledge Still Work?

Around the nation, electorates are growing increasingly skeptical of lawmakers who make unconditional promises never to raise taxes. But, to hear some Democratic activists tell it, rural Nevada is not one of those places:

Longtime Lyon County Democratic Party Chairman Charlie Lawson said without question Gibbons appeals to most rural Nevadans.
"His no-tax stand is his anchor," Lawson, a resident of Stagecoach, said in a phone interview. "Most folks out here will live and die on no taxes. Not just Republicans. Democrats, too."
Democrats can make gains in rural Nevada, he added. But only if they also wander regularly into the hinterlands and emphasize they also oppose taxes -- except when they are needed to resolve a specific problem, such as a lack of roads.
"People will favor some taxes if they get a direct benefit from them," Lawson said. "They have to be informed of the reason for the taxes."

This doesn't mean, of course, that Gibbon's tenuous (to describe it politely) hold on his no-new-taxes pledge flies statewide, either from a political or a policy perspective. Anyone who remembers Gibbon's off-the-cuff ideas for avoiding tax hikes earlier this year probably has a better sense of how quickly such an allegedly "principled" stand can force you to make indefensible policy plans.

And even the "anti-tax" perspective provided here provides a helpful road map for lawmakers seeking to adequately fund public investments-- they just need to be very clear about what they'd like to do with the money. An obvious lesson, perhaps, but one that's worth restating: anti-taxers gain most of their support by pretending that tax revenues don't buy anything-- that taxes are simply poured down a hole in the ground. The more lawmakers can remind the public of all the good stuff their taxes are paying for, the more likely they are to receive public support when they need tax hikes to keep funding these things.