Hello, fellow Tennesseans! I heard about this petition to abolish the food tax through my union (SEIU local 205) here in TN. SEIU 205 is a member of Tennessee 4 All, which is a statewide coalition dedicated to helping this state’s working families.
I attended a Zoom meeting last night and was given this information so I will have it on hand when I do in-person petition signing. I learned the following at that meeting. (A lot of it I knew already but I am mentioning it here as well.)
We all know that Tennessee has a high sales tax rate, and that sales taxes are the most regressive form of taxation, because they take a larger percentage from lower incomes. Our state is also one of 13 states that has a sales tax on food.
However, many large and profitable corporations doing business here don’t pay taxes to our state. There is a bill to eliminate the grocery tax and make up the funds by closing offshore tax loopholes. We need to have them pay what they owe, instead of having Tennesseans foot the bill with taxes on essentials like food.
Of course, some people will say, “Won’t that drive up prices of items those big corporations sell?”
NO! They are already charging the maximum they think they can get consumers to pay.
Here is a link to the petition: https://tn4all.info/3QSyofT
I have a special request: Please kos mail me if you signed the petition. I’m keeping track of numbers for my petitioning effort, which for me has to be done mostly online. Thank you so much.
JoanNJTN