"Mr. Taxpayer Versus Mr. Tax Spender": Taxpayers' Associations, Pocketbook Politics, and the Law During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, the proliferation of local taxpayers’ associations was dramatic and unprecedented. The justly concerned members of these organizations examined the operations of state, city, and county governments, then pressed local officials for operational and fiscal reforms. These associations aimed to reduce the cost of state and local governments to make operations more efficient and less expensive. “Mr. Taxpayer versus Mr. Tax Spender” presents a comprehensive overview of these grassroots taxpayers’ leagues beginning in the 1860s and shows how they evolved during their heyday in the 1930s. Linda Upham-Bornstein chronicles the ways these taxpayers associations organized as well as the tools they used—constructive economy, political efforts, tax strikes, and tax revolt through litigation—to achieve their objectives. Taxpayer activity was a direct consequence of—and a response to—the economic crisis of the Great Depression and the expansion of the size and scope of government. “Mr. Taxpayer versus Mr. Tax Spender ” connects collective tax resistance in the 1930s to the populist tradition in American politics and to other broad impulses in American political and legal history. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 16 1. The Emergence of Taxpayers’ Associations in the Nineteenth Century: Self-Interest and Civic Duty 32 2. The Tax Revolt, 1930–1941: The “Taxpayers Are Rising” and “Want to Pay Less for Government” 45 3. Taxpayers’ Associations’ Legislative and Education Programs: The Pursuit of “Constructive Economy” 69 4. The Populist Politics of Taxpayers’ Groups: “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” 96 5. The Specter of Tax Strikes: “Shutting Off the Money” 121 6. Taxpayers’ Litigation in the Great Depression: Protecting the Taxpayers’ “Hard Earned Money” 138 Conclusion 161 Notes 180 Selected Bibliography 208 Index 216 "Traces the interplay of politics and law in the American taxpayers' association movement of the 1930s and those movements' lasting impact, showing how the Great Depression transformed organized taxpayer activity in the United States and that taxpayers' associations in turn transformed the nature and form of state and local governments"-- Provided by publisher