NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A tax attorney who sued for the release of records from Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration related to a $350,000 analysis of business tax collections in Tennessee said Tuesday that he likely will appeal a judge’s denial of his lawsuit.
Attorney Brett Carter had filed the lawsuit in chancery court alleging a “willful” violation of the Tennessee Open Records Act over the state finance and revenue departments’ refusal to disclose details about how they decided to draft the Revenue Modernization Act that Haslam has proposed to lawmakers this year.
But Chancellor Carol McCoy on Monday denied Carter’s lawsuit after reviewing some of the requested materials in chambers.
“It is disappointing that the state is attempting to pass tax increases based on a secret tax study,” Carter said in an email.
Haslam announced last year that he was commissioning a study of Tennessee’s revenue system to try to explain the volatility of business tax collections, but his lawyers said no single study was produced by the analysis and that other records were protected by an open records exemption for taxpayer-related materials.