The conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee (AFP-TN) published its 2023 Legislative Agenda, suggesting four major policy changes in the state.
During Tennees’s General Assembly legislative session this year, AFP-TN will advocate for legislation that moves to tackle and overall improve: economic opportunity, educational freedom, transparency, and criminal justice reform.
“This legislative session, we are looking forward to working with our partners in the legislature to help every Tennesseans reach their full potential,” AFP-TN State Director Tori Venable said in a statement. “This will include supporting measures to increase economic opportunity, expand educational freedom for all students and families, and support safe, strong communities. We are also looking to see more robust government transparency, so taxpayers are able to hold their representatives accountable.”
Regarding supporting legislation surrounding economic opportunity, AFP-TN specifically looks at policies based on “lower taxes, less government, and more freedom.” In order to achieve those goals, AFP-TN suggests that lawmakers should “repeal the Professional Privilege Tax, loosen occupational licensing requirements, and reduce unnecessary government spending.” Tennessee’s Professional Privilege Tax is a $400 tax that certain professions must pay in order to practice in the state.
To strengthen education freedom in the state, AFP-TN suggests lawmakers expand open enrollment state-wide and encourage per-pupil backpack funding, which “allows education dollars to follow the child, like a backpack, giving families all options.”
To increase government transparency in the state, AFP-TN proposes that Tennessee lawmakers work to “ensure every vote is recorded and all amendments are available to the public before voted upon.”
In regards to reforming the state’s criminal justice system, AFP-TN recommends funding the police through a “transparent budget process” instead of through criminal asset forfeiture, which allows police to seize – and then keep or sell – any property allegedly involved in a crime.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Tennessee State Capitol” by Ken Lund. CC BY-SA 2.0.
I surely hope that supporting legislation surrounding economic opportunity” does not include more slush fund money for the “economic development” cadre that throws away tax dollars willy-nilly to any company that makes the claim that they will add “X” number of jobs. Typically jobs that cost taxpayer at least tens of thousands of dollars each. That is not a good return on investment anywhere.