Dole Campaign Press Release - New Hampshire Governor Steve Merrill Faults Alexander For Advocating a State Income Tax

New Hampshire Governor Steve Merrill said today Lamar Alexander will receive a rude awakening at: the New Hampshire ballot box when voters realize that he tried to create a new state income tax.

"In the minds of New Hampshire taxpayers, Lamar Alexander committed the ultimate cardinal sin while he was governor of Tennessee, and he never told us about it: he proposed a state income tax," said Merrill. "Governor Alexander also raised taxes more than 50 times and doubled the size of state government. With a track record like that, Lamar may be in for a rude awakening on Tuesday night. If New Hampshire Republicans wanted to support a liberal candidate who used his position as governor of a small Southern state to raise taxes and increase spending, they'd just vote for Bill Clinton."

The Memphis Commercial Appeal, during his 1985 State of the State address, "Governor Lamar Alexander last night called for the legislature to begin the process of amending the state constitution to enact an income tax by 1990. ... Alexander spoke approvingly of a sweeping plan to start over with the state's tax system by abolishing all but the sales tax and establishing an income tax by constitutional amendment. ..'I believe it is likely Tennessee will enact some kind of income tax during the 1990s. The only question is when and what kind,' (Alexander) said." (3/5/85)

Merrill said, "Tennessee remains free of the income tax despite Lamar Alexander, not because of him. His own New Hampshire supporters will be disappointed to learn of this."