In the days following the Tennessee General Assembly’s adjournment of its latest legislative session, Americans for Prosperity–Tennessee (AFP-TN) Grassroots Director Pamela Furr is pointing to a series of key policy wins advancing the organization’s priorities in education, taxes, and regulatory reform.
During a Friday appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Furr highlighted AFP’s role in expanding school choice, reducing government regulation, and advancing limits on taxation, framing the session as a success for advocates of limited government.
Furr first pointed to AFP’s involvement in growing the state’s Education Freedom Scholarship program, which lawmakers approved an expansion to 35,000 students, an increase of 15,000 scholarships from the initial amount offered during the program’s first year.
“We were involved in the school choice fight where we were able to get 20,000 education freedom scholarships for kids last year,” she said. “And then this year we’re adding 15,000… we wanted more, but we were able to get 15,000, and we’re hoping to give more next year,” she said.
Furr argued the effort gives families greater control over their children’s education.
“We would love for parents to have the choice to send their kids to better schools… we’re all paying property taxes for this, why should we be paying property taxes to send students to failing schools,” she said.
Furr also pointed to the passage of the Regulatory Freedom Act, which seeks to increase oversight and transparency of Tennessee state agency rules by requiring detailed fiscal impact analysis and greater legislative involvement for costly regulations, as a key legislative win.
“We passed the Regulatory Freedom Act, which is an amazing piece of legislation that basically cuts bureaucratic red tape,” she said. “It will boost economic growth. It’ll increase transparency here in the state.”
She further noted efforts to roll back certificate-of-need laws in certain counties to encourage competition in healthcare markets.
“Getting rid of certificate of need laws… so that healthcare can be competitive,” Furr said.
On taxes, Furr highlighted a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at preventing a statewide property tax, set to go in front of Tennessee voters this November.
“One that I am so proud of is the state constitutional amendment that would ban a statewide property tax,” she said. “We don’t have one… but at any time a legislator could propose any kind of property tax statewide.”
“In November, we’re telling everybody to vote YES on 2… and then we’ll never ever have the statewide property tax,” she added.
Furr also reiterated AFP’s opposition to targeted tax incentives for large corporations.
“If you’re giving ‘tax breaks’ to a big corporation, why shouldn’t the small business also get that same ‘tax break’?” she said. “We would never support any kind of corporate welfare. We are 100 percent against that.”
Furr framed AFP’s work as part of a broader push for individual freedom and limited government.
“This is an organization that fights for great policies to make us, in my opinion, more free,” she said. “It’s less government, less taxes, more freedom for you to decide what you’re going to do with your family, with your job, with your home, with your property.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X.
Photo “Pamela Furr” by Pamela Furr.
