NASHVILLE – Tennessee House Finance Committee Vice Chairwoman Patsy Hazlewood says she intends to press forward with her proposed two-month sales tax holiday on grocery food purchases despite fellow Republican and Gov. Bill Lee’s resistance to the idea.
The Signal Mountain lawmaker earlier this week confirmed in a Times Free Press interview that Lee had “flagged” the bill, citing philosophical opposition to it.
“He did,” Hazlewood said Monday night after Lee delivered his annual State of the State address to lawmakers and released his proposed $40.8 billion annual spending plan. “I heard today.”
Hazlewood said she had not received an actual “flag” letter, traditionally used by some governors to state their opposition to a lawmaker’s bill. “No,” she said, “just kind of a heads-up phone call” from an administration official she did not identify.
Tennessee government is now busting at the seams with hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time surpluses and recurring funds this year. That’s courtesy of both the state’s booming economy as well as low-ball revenues by the State Funding Board. Board members have been on a years-long streak of ignoring consensus estimates by economists on anticipated revenue collections and underestimating them.