Upon taking office as your state senator in 1999, on behalf of our citizens, I drafted and filed a bill proposal to create a Sales Tax Free Holiday in Tennessee. The bill was drafted after the state of Florida, from which I had first heard of the idea and studied the issue.
I am pleased to say that we are now enjoying the fifth Tennessee Sales Tax Free Holiday. The first came in 2006. The fifth Sales Tax Free Holiday is scheduled Aug. 6-8, just in time for back-to-school purchases. There is a website that you can visit that will advise you as to which items are tax-free. That website is: www.tntaxholiday.com.
The event begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 6, and lasts until 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8.
Georgia cancels Tax Free Holiday
We may have additional visitors to Tennessee's Sales Tax Free Holiday this year as the state of Georgia has cancelled their Sales Tax Free Holiday. Accordingly, I expect that you will see citizens from the state of Georgia in Tennessee making purchases for school items for their families and students in college or grades K-12.
Questions from our citizens
As I go around the community, I am getting a very common question from several of our citizens. The question is: What are some of the more noteworthy things that you were involved with during your time of public service?
During the past 12 years, we have experienced quite a bit ranging from the attempt to impose an unconstitutional income tax to creating economic opportunities by working to bring businesses to Tennessee and creating better paying jobs for our citizens. That said, I will attempt to use the next few columns to discuss the issues that we've been involved with that I believe are noteworthy.
The first, and clearly the most important issue that I've been involved with during my 12 years, has been stronger Ethics Reform.
The Tennessee General Assembly has implemented tougher ethics laws than previously existed. Most certainly there were incidents that prompted the occasion for these laws to pass, but I do believe that we made the most of these opportunities by creating some of the tougher ethics laws among the states. While we've not been able to change the manner in which a few of our elected officials have conducted themselves with illicit affairs with interns and lobbyists, we did call upon the most recent senator who conducted an affair to immediately resign.
That senator did in fact resign and I believe that was the right course of action. While I believe we should forgive the person for those illicit activities, I most certainly do not want the person serving in office.
The new ethics laws hold elected officials and special interests more accountable and also greatly limit what contact special interests can have with legislators. However, we still have work to do in the ethics arena.
During the 2006 ethics debates, out of all the things I was pushing for, we were not able to get them all into law. That said, we must be vigilant on two fronts. The first front will be the attempt by special interests and legislators to undo the law as we passed it in 2006. There has been discussion of attempts to mitigate the laws, but thus far none has reached a point to be in a position to pass.
Accordingly, we must be on guard against this type of activity.
The next thing we need to continue to do is push for even stronger ethics laws that will reach even further to prohibit some of the contact that special interests can make, such as purchasing meals and doing things for legislators.
In summary, the number one thing that I've been able to be involved in on behalf of our district is stronger, tougher ethics laws. It has always been my goal to leave a place better than how I found it.
As this term in the legislature comes to an end, I am comforted by knowing that although we can't change the nature of people, we have been able to change the culture of Nashville by changing laws and enforcing them.
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If you wish to contact me my information is as follows: Email, sen.dewayne.bunch@capitol.tn.gov; Legislative Toll-Free Number, 1-800-449-8366, Ext. 13730; and my legislative address is 9 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, TN 37243.
My assistant, Tonya Morelock, will be happy to assist you in any way.
State Sen. Dewayne Bunch, who is not seeking re-election in the August State Primary or November State General, represents the 9th Senatorial District in southeast Tennessee.
