That may work for decades, but what happens when the local taxpayers go through a prolonged economic slowdown and the tax base in the district stagnates?

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Economic stagnation causes the tax base to wither.

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The ensuing activity shows up as jobs, economic growth and an expanded tax base.

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Or you could make implausibly heroic assumptions about economic growth and a rise in the tax base.

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But those revenues would come from policies that increase economic growth and employment, and thereby increase the tax base.

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Instead of broadening the tax base and getting government out of economic decision making, Obama is proposing to narrow the base and wade hip-deep into those choices.

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When any state tax base contracts by amounts this substantial, economic alarms should sound.

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Now, with a dwindling tax base and growing worries about the social effects of wrenching economic dislocation, it is allowed to spend more than it earns on job-creation schemes and infrastructure.

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