In the wake of Florida's disastrous spending spree and a one-vote loss in this year's effort to put a TABOR amendment on the ballot, institutional spending restraint topped the agenda of nearly every organization and politician who addressed Saturday's 2008 Taxpayer Summit in Orlando.

The big news of the event was the unveiling of a new TABOR citizen referendum effort, sponsored by the National Federation for Independent Business. Allen Douglas of NFIB distributed the amendment wording and pledged NFIB financial support for the effort. He called on all the organizations represented to work on getting the required petitions (over 600,000) signed.

It didn't take too much arm twisting. Although their plans and focuses were slightly different, nearly every speaker at the event hammered on the TABOR theme. TABOR, or Taxpayer Bill of Rights, refers to a constitutional requirement that budgets cannot grow from year to year by more than inflation plus population growth. TABOR has topped the RLCFL's top action items for the last two years.

The Summit, the first major get-together of the newly minted Florida Taxpayer's Union, brought together activists and representatives from the Republican Liberty Caucus, Americans for Prosperity, Ax the Tax, Coalition for Property Rights, Constitution Reform Committee, Campaign for Liberty and other grass roots organizations from around the state. The meeting was organized by RLCer John Hallman, president of the FTU.

Other RLCers at the event included Lee Nash, Jessica Diehl, Victor Wilhelm Jr., Lisa Bullion, Phil Zakszewski, R.B. Lee, Adam Guillette, Doug Goetzloe, Rick Sippel, Bryan Donnelly, Tom Walls, Steven Talcott Smith, Lisa Bullion, Steve Burden, Philip Blumel and probably others.

Also significant, State Sen. Mike Haridopolos - who is scheduled to become Senate President in two years if Republicans can maintain their majority in that body - pledged unequivocally to make TABOR his signature issue. He called for people to support their Republican candidates to make sure this is possible.

In another highlight of the meeting, Eli Lehrer of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington DC gave a detailed presentation of Florida's effectively nationalized property insurance system. There is no free market in this kind of insurance in Florida anymore, he said, and we could be one Category 5 storm away from bankruptcy -- or a state income tax. See Lehrer's recent Tallahassee Democrat article on the subject for more info.

In all, the event brought together the backbone of Florida's tax activists who are united on a single issue like never before. This truly presents an opportunity for the state if we all pull together and take advantage of it.