State of the State

On Monday, the governor presented his annual State of the State address.  Typically in this speech the governor unveils his budget proposals.  While the governor wants Tennesseans to “Believe in Better”, the governor did not talk about the most pressing issue to Tennesseans…jobs. 

Currently, there are over 250,000 Tennesseans who everyday try and find a job.  Thousands more are underemployed, working at multiple jobs or jobs that just barely pay the rent. Out of all 55 bills in the governor’s legislative package, only two have anything to do with jobs and the economy.

The governor talked about reducing the sales tax on food from 5.5 percent to 5.3 percent in an effort to help Tennesseans.  Again, this did not go far enough.  As a Democrat, I believe we should push for a bigger cut in the food tax.  Reducing it .2 percent is not enough.  My colleagues and I have legislation that will reduce it from 5.5 percent to 5 percent and even eliminate the food tax all together.  Tennessee has one of the highest taxes on groceries in the nation, and hits our working families the hardest..

Under the governor's proposal, about 900 of the state's wealthiest estate owners would share a collective $14 million tax break by moving the exemption from $1 million to $1.25 million. Governor Bill Haslam said his future plans include a $5 million estate exemption — an effective tax giveaway of an additional $48 million for Tennessee's millionaires and billionaires.

By comparison, the governor proposed a .2 percent sales tax reduction on food. For low- and middle-income families, that's a tax cut of about $7 a year — or 20 cents on $100 worth of groceries.

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Rep. Favors
I am also for lower taxes and cheer the Democrat's proposal to reduce the sales tax on food by 0.5 percent (as compared to the governor's 0.2 percent).

Just to make sure that you are clear about the tax cut you are proposing, the yearly savings for families with a 0.2 percent tax reduction is actually around $20 per year (based on USDA statistics of the amount a family of four spends on groceries per year).  I agree, that amount is not worth cheering about.  However, considering that there are approximately 1.6 million families in Tennessee, the tax cut would be worth about $32 million.  The Democrat's proposal would mean about $80 million per year that the 99 percenters would get to keep.  Quite a tidy sum.

Jerry Bednarczyk
Signal Mountain