You spoke up, and lawmakers are listening!

Last week, the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) unanimously approved a motion by state Sen. Jon Lundberg, an NFIB member from Bristol, to study the tangible personal property (TPP) tax. This was an important step for potential reforms to the tax, which most NFIB members view as a double tax, as well as very burdensome and inefficient.

TACIR will engage various business associations, including NFIB, and local government groups to produce a report this fall that will ascertain:

· Costs to businesses, large and small, to file and pay the tax, and compliance levels

· Variances among local governments, large and small, as to the percent of the tax collected to overall revenue bases

· Costs to local governments, large and small, to collect delinquent payments

· Possible revenue replacement models that would be fair and equitable to businesses, large and small, and to local governments

· Recommended actions on elimination and/or reductions in the TPP burden on businesses and local governments (phase-out or one time)

In a recent NFIB Tennessee survey, 86 percent of members said Tennessee should allow local governments to reduce tangible personal property rates. After many discussions, interested parties agreed there are constitutional and other procedural questions that should be visited before any reforms are adopted. Thus, NFIB decided to support the TACIR study this year, with plans to engage our membership before next year with potential reform proposals.

NFIB thanks Sen. Lundberg, TACIR Chairman Ken Yager, state senator from Kingston, and all TACIR members for their important role in authorizing the study.

TACIR was created in 1978 as a permanent intergovernmental body to study and take action on questions of organizational patterns, powers, functions, and relationships among federal, state, and local governments.