Tag: Beacon Center of Tennessee

IKEA Corporate Welfare Documentary Earns Beacon Center of Tennessee Nomination for National Award

Jason M. Reynolds
Beacon

Think tank Beacon Center of Tennessee is one of three finalists for a national award in the category of Best Issue Campaign. The Beacon Center was nominated for its award for a mini-documentary titled “Rigged: The Injustice of Corporate Welfare.” The Bob Williams Awards for Outstanding Policy Achievement celebrate state think tanks that develop credible research to help states create free-market solutions with national impact. The Bob Williams Awards are hosted by the State Policy Network. The national nonprofit promotes “a vision of an America where personal freedom, innovation, opportunity, and a more peaceful society help all Americans flourish.” The organization supports the growth of a collaborative network of 64 state think tanks and 90 affiliate partners. These partners strengthen working families and defend rights. They do this by promoting policies to create a level playing field and promote freedom, economic liberty, rule of law, property rights and limited government. SPN works these think tanks “to catalyze thriving, durable freedom movements in every state, anchored with high performing independent think tanks so that every American has a voice.” SPN was founded in 1992 by South Carolina entrepreneur Thomas Roe at the urging of former President Ronald Reagan. The Beacon Center’s mini-documentary told…

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Tennessee Loses Out on New Security Technology Due to State Regulations

Chris Butler
Adam Jackson

A Tennessee man who sold state-of-the-art technology that could have kept the state’s churches and schools more secure lost a substantial sum of money because state officials wouldn’t grant him the right to do business. This, according to members of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a Nashville-based free market think tank. You may not know it, but since 1993 the state has had an Alarm Systems Contractors’ Board. Members meet regularly to license, register, and regulate alarm systems contractors.  They also judge whether they’re competent at their jobs, according to the board’s website. The board has five members, and the governor appoints each of them. “Four of those members are alarm system installers themselves,” said Braden Boucek, Beacon’s director of litigation. Going by what Beacon says, the board, by a 3-2 vote, just reversed an earlier decision to classify Adam Jackson’s product as an alarm system — and that requires a license. “They told him his facial recognition software met the definition of an alarm system that would require licensure,” Boucek said. Jackson produces software that instantly scans the face of someone using existing security cameras and compares the image against known offender databases. Board members, Beacon said, wrongfully determined…

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TV and Film Producers Who Cheat Tennessee Taxpayers Might Go to Jail

Chris Butler
tv film production

A federal appeals court just ruled that states that hand out TV and film credits — as Tennessee does — can prosecute people who lie or mislead to get those corporate welfare benefits. Tennessee gave out millions of dollars in incentives to the fictionalized TV drama “Nashville” and more than $300,000 in incentives to the Robin Williams film “Boulevard.” That movie, filmed in Nashville in 2013, was about a man who starts a relationship with a male prostitute. According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled film and TV tax credits are property and thus subject to federal mail and wire fraud laws. That means states can better monitor fraud involving TV and film tax credits. The case, United States vs. Hoffman, involved film and TV tax credits in Louisiana. The court ruled “the fraudulent issuance of those credits would deplete the state treasury, meaning Louisiana had a property interest in the tax credits and could prosecute for fraud in relation thereto,” according to Bloomberg. Members of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a Nashville-based free market think tank, have spoken out against those tax credits for years. Beacon spokesman Mark Cunningham told The Tennessee Star…

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Tourist Heavy Nashville Development Might Get Money Meant for Blighted Areas

Chris Butler
Nashville

A tax incentive normally designated for heavily blighted areas might go to a new development not in a poor and underserved part of Nashville but instead in and around one of the city’s most popular destinations. The developers behind the new office, retail, and residential development at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway want Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency officials to help. Specifically, they want MDHA officials to give them $25 million in Tax Increment Financing, reports The Tennessean. According to the people at Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C.-based policy resource center, TIF subsidizes companies by refunding or diverting a portion of their taxes to help finance development in a certain area. TIF usually pays for, among other things, infrastructure improvements, acquiring land, or demolishing buildings, the website said. “The area may have to meet criteria for blight such as property abandonment, building code violations, or aging housing stock,” according to the website. The Tennessean called Fifth and Broadway “the city’s most prime commercial real estate.” In an emailed statement, MDHA spokeswoman Jamie Berry told The Tennessee Star that the area still meets TIF criteria. “The district was blighted at the time it was created, and Metro Council…

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Think Tank: Tax Incentives Hurt Small Business Owners in Tennessee

Chris Butler
small business

Tennessee’s economy would thrive even without local and state governments dishing out tax incentives to already wealthy corporations. What’s more, these tax incentives penalize Tennessee’s small business owners. This from the spokesman for the Nashville-based free market think tank The Beacon Center of Tennessee. “Simply put, corporate handouts benefit rich millionaires at the expense of small business owners and taxpayers,” said Beacon spokesman Mark Cunningham. Cunningham cited an original documentary Beacon released last year. That documentary, titled “Rigged,” was about what the think tank described as the malignant effects of crony capitalism in Tennessee. Under crony capitalism, there are mutually advantageous relationships between government officials and certain people in business. This happens often at the expense of other business owners. This also often gives certain business owners an upper hand over his or her competitors. The “Rigged” documentary featured two Memphis furniture store owners who had to compete against the city’s new IKEA store, which got tens of millions of dollars from the city government. “What ended up happening was that one of those business owners has since gone out of business,” Cunningham said. “Everyone can look at this practice and say ‘This is not fair. This is not what…

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Tennessee Taxpayers Gave $1 Billion in Corporate Welfare Last Year

Chris Butler
Bernstein

You, the taxpayers of Tennessee, helped give away nearly $1 billion in tax credits to corporations who set up shop here last year. State law, as it turns out, forbids you from finding out exactly what kind of return you’re getting on your investment. In other words, even though the money came out of your wallet, you may not know how any one corporation spent it. For this, you can thank Tennessee’s confidentiality laws. Mark Cunningham, spokesman for the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free market think tank, said state officials hide behind them. “Beacon wants the books to be completely open when it comes to corporate handouts,” Cunningham said. “If you are getting money from the taxpayers then we should know how many jobs you are creating and what that money is being used for. If you are taking our money then you don’t get to hide behind these walls, in our opinion.” When there’s more transparency with these tax credits then there’s more clarity. When there’s more clarity about what, precisely, corporations do with this money then there’s more likelihood the taxpayers will dislike it, Cunningham said. The state’s powers that be, of course, bestow these tax…

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Beacon Center Calls ‘Cut’ on Wasteful Tennessee Film, TV Subsidies Such as ‘Nashville’

Jason M. Reynolds
film crew

The TV show “Nashville” may finally be ending, but taxpayers have been stuck with the tab for this and other “flops,” conservative think tank says in a new report. The Beacon Center of Tennessee released the “Calling Cut on Film Incentives” report Wednesday to decry the bad “investments” the state had made in spending tax dollars on shows, movies and commercials. “Nashville” is only one example highlighted in the report. The show, on the eve of its series finale, has been canceled twice in three years and cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, the Beacon Center said. The current home is CMT, which picked it up after ABC dropped it. Beacon Center CEO Justin Owen said, “While we are against all forms of corporate welfare, film incentives have unquestionably proven to have the worst return on investment of any type of handout. Studies show that film incentives have a return on investment of anywhere from just seven cents per dollar to 28 cents per dollar, an investment that only the government would make. “It seems like Tennessee government officials were throwing darts blindly when they picked what productions to subsidize,” Owens said. “In fact, over 40% of the films that received…

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Beacon Center Releases Alternative Transit Plan For Nashville With No Tax Increases

Jason M. Reynolds
traffic jam

Conservative think tank Beacon Center of Tennessee has created a transit plan for Nashville that it says would serve all drivers in the near future while not raising taxes or requiring a referendum. The plan is available here. “Proponents of the Let’s Move Nashville light-rail plan argued that an alternative plan would likely take years to develop, with some even suggesting as high as another 10 years, making approving the plan imperative,” Beacon Center said. “Luckily, voters disagreed, knowing better alternatives existed.” The plan had its genesis from a forum called Off Track: What’s Wrong with Nashville’s Transit Plan & What We Should Do Instead where experts reviewed the proposed plan and offered alternative solutions, policy coordinator Ron Shultis wrote for Beacon Center. For Metro Nashville, Beacon proposes: Build an adaptive traffic control system (ATCS) that enables traffic signals to immediately respond to traffic demand in real time. Nashville’s last countywide optimization project in 2016 reduced travel times by 14%. The Federal Highway Administration recommends recalibrating lights every 3-5 years unless there are major changes earlier. Beacon Center says ATCS has helped Los Angeles cut travel time by 12% and increase speeds by 16%. Eliminate government bans on private transportation companies’ ability…

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Tennessee Loses Money Spending $17,500 Per Job to Lure 1,000 AllianceBernstein Employees to Nashville from New York City

Jason M. Reynolds
Tennessee Capital building

A $17.5 million tax incentive from the state of Tennessee to lure 1,000 jobs to Nashville–$17,500 per job—came at the expense of taxpayers to lure well-paid corporate executives when they already were drawn to the state’s other features like a favorable tax structure, experts say. The Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development announced in May that AllianceBernstein Holding LP would its corporate headquarters and about 1,050 jobs to Nashville from Manhattan. ‘On the backs of taxpayers’ When the announcement was made, Mark Cunningham of The Beacon Center of Tennessee called for the state to not offer incentives: “While the Beacon Center welcomes AllianceBernstein to Nashville with open arms, it should not be on the backs of Nashville and Tennessee taxpayers. The company is leaving high-tax New York City and coming to Nashville because of our extremely favorable tax structure that includes no state income tax and the phase-out of the Hall Income Tax on stocks and bonds. Their decision to already relocate here before any incentives are awarded proves that we can attract businesses with our economic climate, tax structure, and fiscal responsibility, and that we do not need to give them the tax dollars of hard-working Tennesseans on…

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Tennessee’s Zealous Barber Licensing Board Sued for ‘Irrelevant Requirements’

Admin
Elias Zarate

Those looking for a swifter path to becoming a barber in Tennessee just might find relief. The Tennessee Board of Cosmetology and Barbers Examiners is under fire for what twenty-five year-old Elias Zarate is calling “irrelevant requirements” associated with obtaining a Barber license – namely, a high school diploma. Born and raised in Texas, as a young boy Elias Zarate lost both parents as a result of a car accident. His mother died in the crash, and his father – in the US illegally – was deported after recovering from his substantial injuries. Elias went to school and worked to support his two younger siblings, but ultimately quit in the 11th grade to work full time. “After so many years of hard, grueling work to provide for others, Elias thought he had made it,” the Beacon Center of Tennessee wrote in an article about the would-be barber, adding: He was finally able to work in a field that he cared about and had a talent for, and he was able to earn good money doing it Life, it seemed, was coming together. State officials quickly tore his dream apart. Elias was shut down shortly after he got started. He was subjected…

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Experts at Beacon Center’s ‘Off Track: What’s Wrong With Nashville’s Transit Plan & What We Should Do Instead’ Summit Slam Mayor Barry’s Scheme

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The Beacon Center of Tennessee hosted a free conference open to the public on Saturday featuring the nation’s foremost experts discussing “Off Track: What’s Wrong with Nashville’s Transit Plan & What We Should Do Instead.” The title reflects the sentiment of attendees, primarily interested citizens versus special interest groups, that there is a congestion problem in the greater Nashville area that needs a solution, but one that is more efficient and cost effective than the $9 billion Let’s Move Nashville plan being put to referendum on May 1. The event included two power-house panels, the first on “What’s Wrong with the Nashville Plan,” featuring Randal O’Toole, Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute; Michael Sargent, Policy Analyst, Transportation and Infrastructures from the Heritage Foundation; and, Ron Shultis, Policy Coordinator of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, moderated by Ralph Bristol, former WTN 99.7 Nashville Morning News Host. The second panel included Transportation Policy Analyst Baruch Feigenbaum from the Reason Foundation; Marc Scribner, Senior Fellow of Competitive Enterprise Institute; and Emily Hamilton, Policy Research Manager, Mercatus Center, moderated by Beacon Center of Tennessee President and CEO Justin Owen and focused on “A Better Plan for Nashville.” John Cerasulo, Chairman of…

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‘Pork Report 2017’ Details Tennessee Government Waste and Corruption

Tim Dukeman

Tennessee politicians are facing harsh criticism after The Beacon Center released Tennessee’s 2017 “Pork Report.” The report lists multiple examples of government officials using taxpayer dollars to give handouts to politically-connected industries and businesses. The pork added up to a staggering $400 million in taxpayer dollars in a single year. With many options for the 2017 “Pork of the Year,” the Beacon Center allowed a popular vote to decide the winner, as The Tennessee Star reported. Coming in first place with 34 percent of the vote was the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development for their Industrial Machinery Tax Credit. This credit costs $67 million per year, but accomplishes almost nothing for Tennessee taxpayers. Pitched as a way to help create jobs, the Industrial Machinery Tax Credit has only managed to create 55 jobs, which means that taxpayers are spending $1.2 Million for each job created by the credit. The Beacon Center described the credit in this way: While we believe corporate welfare is antithetical to capitalism, this example is insulting to every single taxpayer in the state. This handout to big business shows how little the government actually knows about the effectiveness of the “incentive packages” it doles out and should…

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Beacon Center Launches Advocacy Organization to Better Promote Free Market

Wendy Wilson

The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee on Wednesday announced that it has formed a new nonprofit that will serve as the free market think tank’s advocacy partner. Called Beacon Impact, the new nonprofit was set up to promote reform at the state Capitol and within communities. While the new entity is a 501(c)(4) organization, meaning it can endorse candidates as well as engage in unlimited lobbying, the nonpartisan Beacon Center has no plans to break with past practice and start promoting political candidates and parties. Instead, the nonprofit is charged with “focusing exclusively on advocating for the policy ideas developed by the Beacon Center,” according to a news release. The Beacon Center itself is a 501(c)(3) organization, meaning it has a limited ability to lobby. Justin Owen, the CEO of both organizations, said in a statement: The Beacon Center has a solid track record of developing policy solutions grounded in the principles of free markets, individual liberty, and limited government. We have also successfully shepherded many of these solutions into law. But it’s not enough. We need the ability to advocate for meaningful reform both inside and outside the state Capitol, in the halls of the legislature and local governments,…

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Voting Open for Beacon Center’s Pork of the Year Event

Wendy Wilson

Voting is open for the Beacon Center of Tennessee’s Pork of the Year event for 2017. The annual event allows the people of Tennessee to choose the biggest waste of taxpayer dollars from a short list of candidates “who have done the most egregious things with taxpayer money,” according to the Beacon Center’s website. The Beacon Center is a Nashville-based think tank that promotes the free market. The 2016 Pork of the Year winner was the University of Tennessee’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion for its promotion, at taxpayer expense, of gender neutral pronouns such as “ze” and “zir,” and its discouragement of Christmas-themed holiday parties. This year’s choices include the Jobs 4 TN program, the Opryland Waterpark, the state’s industrial machinery tax credit, and former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold profiting off inmates through his conspiracy to sell electronic cigarettes. For a detailed description of these candidates and to vote, go to beacontn.org/pork-of-the-year-voting. Jobs 4 TN   Opryland Waterpark Tennessee’s industrial machinery tax credit   Former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold’s scheme to profit off inmates through his conspiracy to sell electronic cigarettes.

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Beacon Center of Tennessee Calls for Referendum on Funding New Soccer Stadium

Wendy Wilson

The Beacon Center of Tennessee is calling for a public referendum to allow taxpayers to vote on whether tax dollars should be used to build a new Major League Soccer stadium in Nashville. Mayor Megan Barry has worked out a preliminary private-public deal to use tax dollars to help fund a stadium if Major League Soccer chooses Nashville for an expansion team. The Beacon Center is a nonpartisan Nashville-based think tank that promotes the free market. The center is against Metro Nashville using tax dollars to fund the stadium but believes residents should make the decision, spokesman Mark Cunningham said in a news release Thursday. He said: Research shows that using taxpayer money to fund a professional sports stadium is a terrible investment for taxpayers and is a prime example of government overreach. Nashville taxpayers should not be forced by politicians to fund millionaire franchise owners and developers. Time after time, stadiums, and specifically MLS stadiums, have proven to be big losers for taxpayers. We are tired of hearing politicians spout the same evidence-free lines on taxpayer-funded stadiums, that this is what the people of Nashville want. If Nashville politicians really believe that funding this stadium with tax dollars is…

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Randy Boyd Tells Beacon Center: Business Tax Incentives Can Work If Done Right

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Tax incentives to attract and retain businesses in Tennessee can be a good thing for the state, gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd told the Beacon Center of Tennessee on Tuesday. “You’ve got to make smart decisions, but if you make the smart decision, you can get a good return on investment,” Boyd said. The Beacon Center has been conducting Facebook Live interviews of the candidates in the 2018 race for governor. Questions have centered around issues facing the state that are of particular interest to the Beacon Center, a Nashville-based think tank that promotes the free market. The Beacon Center is against so-called corporate welfare and has produced a short documentary on the topic called Rigged: The Injustice of Corporate Welfare. The center maintains that tax incentives offered to large companies hurt small businesses and put government in the position of picking winners and losers. In his comments about business tax credits, Boyd offered a contrast with state House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville), Williamson County businessman Bill Lee and former state Sen. Mae Beavers, who were interviewed earlier. Harwell and Beavers were resolute in their agreement with the Beacon Center about corporate welfare, while Lee said there needs to be more transparency in the…

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House Speaker Beth Harwell Banks on Experience in Run for Tennessee Governor

Wendy Wilson

  House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) told the Beacon Center of Tennessee last week that her “core conservative values” and experience in the state legislature make her a good candidate for governor. A Nashville-based nonprofit that promotes the free market, the Beacon Center is conducting Facebook Live interviews with gubernatorial candidates on issues facing the state. “I think I have core conservative values that I’ve taken to state government and put them into place, and because of that I think we do in fact have a good, well-run state government,” Harwell said. Harwell said that in her leadership role she has “led in some of our state’s boldest and most successful   initiatives – everything from eliminating the inheritance tax and gift tax to making us the third lowest taxed state in the nation and the lowest debt state in the nation – but also reforming our unemployment and workers compensation laws, making this a very legally stable environment for businesses to flourish.” Harwell also touted sponsoring legislation allowing for charter schools and for making Tennessee friendly for homeschoolers. In addition, she mentioned a program launched last year that allows parents of children with special needs to access a variety of educational…

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Mae Beavers Tells The Beacon Center She Will Drain the Swamp: ‘We May Need An Inspector General in Every Department in Tennessee’

Wendy Wilson

State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) told the Beacon Center of Tennessee on Friday she supports President Trump’s efforts to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C., and intends to do the same thing in Nashville if elected governor. “We may need an inspector general in every department in Tennessee. I’m talking about draining the swamp, and if there’s anybody worthy of being rehired, we’ll rehire them, but I think we’ve got a lot of problems that need to be solved,” Beavers said. “I know what I want to do day one, and I have the record to prove I will do those things,” she noted. “I’m the most conservative [candidate] in the race. I have the track record. I have the voting record to back up everything that I’m saying,” Beavers added. Voted “most bashful” in high school, Beavers never imagined herself entering politics. But then one day her husband, frustrated with local politics, came home from work and announced, “I am so fed up. We’ve got to get involved. One of us has to run for office and I don’t have time.” Beavers was going to school at night, so her husband managed to find enough time to knock…

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Beacon Center Releases Documentary On Corporate Welfare

Wendy Wilson

The Beacon Center of Tennessee is getting the word out about a short documentary it produced to educate the public about corporate welfare. Called “Rigged: The Injustice of Corporate Welfare,” the documentary runs just under 20 minutes. It takes a look at the impact of corporate welfare on small business owners struggling to compete against corporations receiving taxpayer dollars. The Beacon Center is a Nashville-based nonprofit that promotes free market research and solutions. “Beacon Center’s hope is that the documentary will be a useful tool for people who are either undecided or against us,” said Mark Cunningham, the center’s director of marketing and communications, in a press release. “It offers a look at the issue from a perspective they may have never considered. They have heard about all the ‘job creation’ and economic benefits of corporate welfare deals. Our goal is to tell the stories of the real people whom tax incentives and handouts negatively affect—stories that haven’t been told. We believe that, for far too long, free market types have merely tried to dispute the economic claims and have failed to humanize the issue. The human cost is front and center in our video.” The documentary features interviews with two furniture store…

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Beacon Center Sues Metro Nashville Government Over Affordable Housing Law

Wendy Wilson

  The Beacon Center of Tennessee is taking Metro Nashville government to court, claiming that a new affordable housing law is illegal and unconstitutional. The Nashville-based think tank, which promotes free markets, filed a lawsuit last week in Davidson County Chancery Court. The suit was filed on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Middle Tennessee. The suit challenges an inclusionary zoning ordinance passed by the Metro Council in September 2016. With limited exceptions, the law requires homebuilders to set aside part of their developments for affordable or workforce housing or pay a fee. Megan Barry, Nashville’s Democratic mayor, has made affordable housing one of her signature issues. “As anyone who has been paying attention knows, a government program that begins with the term affordable is typically anything but,” the Beacon Center said in a blog post. “Look no further than the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. That redistribution of wealth scheme has left working-class Americans with astronomically higher prices and fewer health insurance options, all in exchange for a worthless guarantee that it will be more ‘affordable.’ ‘Affordable’ housing is essentially the Obamacare of housing.” Developers will pass on the costs of creating affordable housing to buyers and renters, according…

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Nashville Taxpayers Voice Skepticism of Proposed $14 Million Tax Incentive Deal for Opryland Waterpark Development

Christina Botteri
Tennessee Star - Sound Waves

Once again, powerful business interests have approached the Metro Nashville Development and Housing Agency for a tax break, and once again, the Metro Nashville Development and Housing Agency appear to be all-too-happy to grant their request. Nashville taxpayers, however, are not so eager. In a statement released by the Beacon Center of Tennessee: According to a new rapid online poll released by the Beacon Center of Tennessee and Nashville-based polling firm icitizen, a full 92% of Tennesseans are opposed to the Metro Council’s proposal to use $14 million in taxpayer money to fund a waterpark at the Opryland Hotel that only hotel guests are allowed to use. Only about 5% of respondents approve of this deal. The incentives for the waterpark are viewed extremely unfavorably by Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike. “With this tax break, [the new Opryland development, Sound Waves] are competing with other, existing water parks, with government help. And on top of that, it is not open to regular Nashville residents,” said Mark Cunningham, Beacon’s marketing and communications director, in an interview with The Tennessee Star this morning. The Beacon Center is a 501 c(3) dedicated to “empowering Tennesseans to reclaim control of their lives.” “So let’s think about this,”…

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