2007 Report Archive return to home page
|
|---|
SLOW GO IN THE LEGISLATURE ON BILLS In news this week, Governor Phil Bredesen has turned nearly every speaking engagement in the past few weeks into a sales pitch for his proposed tripling of the cigarette tax. At a speaking engagement to the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, he implored business leaders to speak face to face with their legislators and pin them down on how they would vote. Bredesen also said rumors are flying around the state capitol about a tax revenue surplus as high as 500-million dollars this year. He said the surplus won’t be nearly that large. Some lawmakers suggest that money could be used in place of the cigarette tax, a notion Bredesen rejects. Still others are calling for a tax reduction on food. On that same vain, in a surprise move, the Bredesen administration pushed for approval of a bill that would remove sales tax from milk, eggs and baby food, including infant formula. Representative Gary Odom, the administration floor leader in the House of Representatives, presented the bill to the Budget Subcommittee late Thursday. Odom said it was a conservative approach to try to offset what he called the “regressive nature” of the sales tax on food. The amended bill was placed “behind the budget,” which means it will be taken up after the rest of the budget document has been passed by the two Houses. A Joint committee of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Commerce Committee will convene on Monday to continue public hearings on the AT&T proposed cable video services bill. Once these public hearings are concluded, the bill will start making it way through the committee process. Please call if you have questions.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
P. O. Box 58083
Nashville, TN 37205
(615)298-8165
