Anti-tax advocate gives award to state legislator

? One of the nation’s leading anti-tax proponents today compared Republicans who vote for tax increases to “rat heads in a Coke bottle.”

Grover Norquist, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform, came to the Statehouse to give state Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, an award for opposing tax increases.

Norquist said Republicans needed to abide by the anti-tax increase philosophy.

“Republicans who vote for tax increases are rat heads in a Coke bottle. They damage the brand. They don’t just hurt themselves,” Norquist said.

Norquist also spoke against judges making decisions that he said should be left to elected lawmakers.

Huelskamp has been a leading voice in the Legislature against tax increases and efforts to reduce the authority of the Kansas Supreme Court in the current school finance legislation.

Huelskamp’s award was presented by Norquist and Karl Peterjohn, executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network.