Steven Latimer

The first speaker was Jonathan Williams of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. Williams cited the results of ALEC's new study, Rich States, Poor States which seeks to establish a correlation between taxation policy and wealth.

Then Ed Braddy spoke. He is the executive director of the American Dream Coalition. Braddy spoke on how flawed "smart growth" and "new urbanism" really are. While appearing innocent, these models frequently end up controlling people against their wishes, rather than controlling urban space, argued Braddy.

George Mason University Economics Department chairman Don Boudreaux then rounded out the speakers with his talk on "Political Myths." I introduced myself to the nutty professor prior to the coalition meeting commenced and mentioned to Dr. Boudreaux that I am a VCU student majoring in mathematics who aspires to become an actuary. Boudreaux looked approvingly, even likening me to Milton Friedman - who once wanted to become an actuary himself. (Boudreaux surmised that this means I will win a Nobel Prize, just like Friedman did. Hmmm ...)

Then it was time for a "news conference" on an initiative that the National Taxpayers' Union is doing on taxes. NTU's national kickoff was to begin in Richmond, but according to Gottstein, the media read the press release (below) wrong and thought the conference was scheduled for Monday. After the representative from NTU spoke, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli was scheduled to speak, however because Cuccinelli was running late, the conference had to end without him.

Gottstein summed up what he thinks Cuccinelli would have said: "Tirade, tirade, tirade! Taxes bad!"

I scanned the press release I received yesterday, which is below: