Forbes Calls Tennessee Part of a ‘Southern Taxpayer Safe Space’

Tennessee is one of four states with a governor that has taken state tax hikes off the table, according to a new article in Forbes.

Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are the other three states, according to Patrick Gleason, vice president of state affairs at Americans for Tax Reform.

Gleason is also a senior fellow at the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free market think tank.

Gleason said these four states “have experienced some of the nation’s most rapid population growth in recent years.”

This is advantageous for people in those states, particularly now, Gleason said, in his Forbes article.

“Congressional Democrats who control the U.S. House of Representatives are already pushing to ratchet up the federal corporate tax rate and hike the top personal income tax rate, which hits a large share of small business income, as high as 70%,” Gleason said.

This, while a new lineup of Southern governors carry out low tax and other free market policies in their respective states, Gleason wrote.

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“One thing that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp all have in common, aside from the fact that they’re all Republicans, is that each one of them signed a written commitment to their constituents during last year’s campaign that they would, if elected, veto any and all efforts to raise taxes,” Gleason wrote.

“This is optimal timing for Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina to have elected chief executives who are ruling out net tax increases. That’s because the U.S. has become a more attractive destination for global capital following implementation of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, the federal tax reform bill passed at the end of 2017 that significantly reduced personal and corporate federal income tax rates.”

Gleason went on to say CEOs and other investors can feel comfortable taking their business to Tennessee and the other three states. They need not worry about “the threat of a major change in tax rates, at least not a change that is harmful.”

“The same can certainly not be said of states like Illinois, Connecticut, New York, and California.”

“Tennessee lawmakers and voters have gone so far as to put an income tax prohibition in the state constitution, something that Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) has said he would like to do in the Lone Star State,” Gleason wrote.

“As it would happen, this Southern Taxpayer Safe Space – comprised of Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina — is one of the top destinations for the tens of thousands of taxpayers who have fled high-tax blue states in recent years.”

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

 

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