The Disgruntled Republican in Nashville: 2022-10-16

Saturday, October 22, 2022

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Thursday, October 20, 2022

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee given 'D' grade by Cato Institute for spending and taxing policies

By Jon Styf | The Center Square, Oct 13, 2022 — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was given a "D" by the Cato Institute in its annual Fiscal Report Card on America’s Governors.

Lee’s ranking was based on his spending and taxing record, including this year’s Tennessee budget, which included $500 million toward a new Tennessee Titans stadium. The state has also agreed to giving sales tax to the team at both its stadium and a 130-acre still-to-be-determined plot set for development around the stadium.

"He scored fairly poorly in this report because of large spending increases and a lackluster record on taxes," the report said. "He proposed large general fund budget increases the past three years, and in 2022, the budget jumped 21 percent."

Lee also led a push last year to give $884 million in incentives to Ford for its planned $5.6 billion electric truck plant outside of Memphis. This year, the state did remove doctors and osteopathic physicians from its privilege tax.

"In 2019, Lee signed legislation removing 15 occupations from Tennessee’s privilege tax, which is a $400 annual tax on people in certain occupations," the report said. "In 2020, he signed legislation requiring online out-of-state retailers to collect state sales taxes. Unlike similar legislation in other states, the higher sales tax revenues from the Tennessee bill were not used to cut taxes elsewhere."

The report also cited a one-month grocery tax holiday in August along with a one-year moratoriums on state individual vehicle registration fees along with sales tax on gun safes.

Cato Institute gave an "A" grade to Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Brad Little of Idaho, and Doug Ducey of Arizona. All are Republicans.

It gave an "F" grade to Tim Walz of Minnesota, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, J. B. Pritzker of Illinois, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Kate Brown of Oregon, Gavin Newsom of California, and Jay Inslee of Washington. All are Democrats.

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has no plans to participate in a debate against his Democratic opponent, ..

... whose name I won't mention. I do not want to give name recognition to this person that almost no one even knows is running. When one has only token opposition, it is not in one's interest to engage in debate. Not that this unnamed Democrat won't get some votes. There are a lot of Democrats who will vote for any Democrat even if they have never heard of him. A debate could only hurt the better-known candidate. If Democrats want a debate, they need serious candidates.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Tennessee methodically moves toward total elimination of professional privilege tax

By Jon Styf | The Center Square, Oct 6, 2022 - Tennessee lawmakers eliminated another sector of privilege tax this year with the removal of physicians and osteopathic physicians from the $400 annual state licensing tax.

But many are pushing for the remaining professional privilege taxes to end in Tennessee.

"This is not the elimination of it for all professions, which I think is the goal for this body and has been the goal of this member, certainly," Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon said when the most recent bill was passed. "But it is continuing on the track and the pathway to the ultimate elimination of this privilege tax."

The removal of physicians is expected to have a $9.7 million annual financial impact for the state, which collected $691 million in privilege tax last fiscal year above the $495 million budgeted for the year.

Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, said that she was met with surprise when she proposed a bill to eliminate the tax completely 10 years ago as the professional privilege taxes continued in lieu of a state income tax. She said the privilege taxes were not expected to last long.

"It has certainly lasted a long time," Bowling said.

"We need to eliminate all the ones left," Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, said during discussion of the most recent eliminations.

The remaining privilege taxes are $400 annual payments, due June 1, for lobbyists, attorneys and agents, broker-dealers, and investment advisors.

In this year’s budget, Tennessee included a $500 million payment toward a new Tennessee Titans stadium along with creating a one-month grocery tax holiday in August and one-year moratorium on personal vehicle and autocycle state registration fees.

Tennessee collected $4.6 billion more than budgeted last fiscal year in taxes and fees.

"With the billions that have been over-collected to balloon our state surplus lawmakers should be looking to cut taxes on Tennesseans permanently," said Tori Venable, Tennessee State Director for Americans for Prosperity. "They should start with repealing the Privilege Tax – in a state that has constitutionally banned the income tax it is appalling that anyone should have to pay for the "privilege" of working in their chosen profession. After repealing any remaining unjust or unconstitutional taxes, they should look to permanently reduce the sales tax on food."

The Legislature also approved $884 million in incentives for Ford’s $5.6 billion electric truck plant near Memphis during a special session last fall.

"All of us collectively agree that the goal is to completely do away with this (privilege) tax," said Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland. "It should never have been put in to begin with and on every single profession, we’re gradually doing it the same way we do in Tennessee … very responsible and reasonable and methodical as we cut taxes down."

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