Did you know that last year the Tennessee Legislature passed a bill giving more than $1.5 billion dollars worth of tax breaks and refunds to multinational corporations like FedEx, Amazon, Nissan and Ford? Meanwhile, when considering cutting taxes for families at the grocery store, Revenue Subcommittee Chairman Senator Joey Hensley said that was a “pipe dream." Ending the grocery tax and closing corporate loopholes is not a pipe dream. In fact, ending the grocery tax is tremendously popular amongst most Tennesseans, and we are only one of our 10 states that has still not abolished the grocery tax.

But we can’t just end the grocery tax without replacing the revenue it brings into the state to continue funding essential services like roads and schools. We already have underfunded schools and public services. We need to close the loopholes that big businesses are exploiting to make them pay up. Year after year, the Tennessee legislature delivers for big business like lowering FedEx’s airline tax from $32 million dollars to capping it at $1 million dollars while it undercuts our communities by gutting our public education system, overruling local governments, and outlawing accountability tools like community benefits agreements and more.

Tennessee lawmakers sent HB002 that would close corporate tax loopholes and end the grocery tax to Summer Study, but so far, they haven’t studied anything. We’re demanding they find out why everyday Tennesseans are paying high sales and grocery taxes and why many big businesses are getting away with paying nothing.