Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Big Brother Obenshain

Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) has introduced SB137 would give Big Brother an assist while intimidating potential voters - it should be defeated. The bill would permit the State Board of Elections to give (for a "reasonable fee") commissioners of the revenue and treasurers lists of registered voters for use in tax assessment, tax collection, and tax enforcement.
While I'd like to believe Senator Obenshain just wants to ease the burden on the tax collector and to assist with filling the government coffers, the obvious truth is that combining voting and tax collection is a horrible idea. It is hard to see how much benefit this would add to traditional tax enforcement; but it is easy to see this could have a chilling effect on voter registration. Anyone who has tax issues, or who simply hates the taxman, might decide that registration is more of an invasion of privacy than it is worth. Already, some people don't register because they might get called for jury duty.
Senator Mark "Big Brother" Obenshain's bad idea is before the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee. Contact them and urge them to vote NO on intimidating voters by intermixing registration and tax collection.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So your rallying cry is "No Taxation with Representation!"

Belle Rose said...

You either misinterpret, misunderstand, or misrepresent. Government should respect privacy of voters. Laws should encourage citizen participation not discourage it. After all, as someone said, "Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."