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Spot check
By WES ALLISON, Times Staff Writer
THE AD: An unseen narrator says, "On taxes, compare Reno, McBride, and Bush." A "Reno" banner flashes on the screen as the narrator says, "Janet Reno promises billions in new spending, but won't say how she'll pay for it. Tricky." McBride's name flashes on the screen: "Bill McBride supports nearly a billion dollars in new taxes. And even that won't pay for his billions in spending promises. Expensive." They fade away, replaced by the governor's name. "Jeb Bush says no new taxes. He's cut taxes, cut waste and still increased education funding by $3-billion," the narrator says. "Reno: Tricky. "McBride: Expensive. "Leadership: Jeb Bush." It ends with a shot of Bush at a conference table. ANALYSIS: The ad is clever but not completely accurate. It inflates McBride's tax proposal by 100 percent; McBride has called for $1-billion in new spending for education, but has proposed a 50-cents-a-pack cigarette tax increase to raise more than half that amount. The rest of the money would come from ending sales tax exemptions for unspecified goods and services, and from cutting legislators' pet projects. McBride has not offered spending plans to pay for his other proposals, including programs to keep more children out of foster care. The "billions in spending promises" the ad claims the Democrats have made come largely thanks to the Republican Party, which took the liberty of calculating the costs of proposals made by Reno and McBride to improve education and child welfare. Neither candidate has attached price tags to all of their proposals. The ad is most accurate about Reno. Although she has advocated cutting class sizes and boosting teacher pay, as well as reorganizing the state Department of Children and Families and increasing prekindergarten schooling, she has suggested paying for improvements only by cutting waste and fraud. It likely would be hard to fund an array of programs that way. The ad claims Bush, meanwhile, has raised education spending while cutting taxes. Bush has cut taxes, including $262-million in corporate taxes he pushed during the past legislative session. He also has cut the intangibles tax on investments. But while Bush has raised education spending by $3-billion, that doesn't take inflation, new students, and earlier budget cuts into account. The actual increase in education spending during Bush's first three years amounts to about $10 per student, a Times analysis has found. This ad, the Republican Party's eighth on Bush's behalf, makes an important point. Reno and McBride can meet few of their promises without money. But the ad's real success counts on the Republicans being right: that voters are more concerned about cost than about investing in education and child welfare.
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From the Times state desk
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