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MIKE FREEMAN SAYS THE STATE SALES TAX is surprisingly progressive.

Freeman: Because we don't tax food or clothing, and significant parts of the sales tax collection is done from items that people will purchase during better times - a new washer, a new dryer, a new hot water heater, a new car, new furniture items. Not to suggest they're not important, but if in bad times, you're going to sit on that bad sofa for a couple more years. You have to buy food and clothing for your family every day.

Sure, he says, people will complain about it, but he plans to make up for it by proposing a reduction in the property tax. He says as he campaigns around the state, it's the tax more people complain about than any other. He understands why, calling it the state's most regressive tax.

Freeman: It's a tax based least on the ability to pay. You pay income tax if you have a job, but if you lose your job you don't pay income tax. But if you still own your home, you still have to pay that property tax.

Freeman: And what we need to do is to make sure that the kind of tax relief we give to businesses on property tax we also give to homeowners.

Freeman pays for the tax cuts by using current and future state surpluses. He denies that if the economy suffers a downtown, the tax cuts will force the state to cut services or increase taxes again. He says any adjustments will be made in the size of government.

But experts warn candidates against getting too comfortable with making promises. As one put it, "It's really too good to be true."