VOL. 126 | NO. 204 | Wednesday, October 19, 2011
By Andy Meek
Updated 2:10PMTennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey is going on a road trip.
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey spoke earlier this year at the closing session of the Southern Legislative Conference at The Peabody hotel.����
(Photo: Lance Murphey)
The speaker of the state Senate wants to host a series of discussions with business owners from every corner of the state about red tape and any unnecessary obstacles that make life difficult for them.
Hence, the launch of what he?s calling his ?Red Tape Road Trip.?
Ramsey unveiled TNRedtape.com in March as a place where some of those complaints could be aired. For his road trip, he?s partnering with the National Federal of Independent Business for a series of talks that began Oct. 13 in Clarksville.
The road trip rolls into Memphis Wednesday, Oct. 19, for a luncheon and a question-and-answer session with business owners at Regions Bank, 6200 Poplar Ave.
Ramsey said the ultimate goal of the trip and sessions with business owners is to make interactions between state government and those entrepreneurs as ?painless as possible.?
?I realize we?re a pro-business state, but there still might be some things we can do to help business owners,? said Ramsey, himself a small-business owner who started a real estate and auction company. ?I also had wanted some kind of clearinghouse, where people can log onto the Web and let us know of any problems they encounter.?
Beyond the road trip?s first stops in Clarksville and Memphis, more trips are being scheduled to Knoxville, Nashville, Chattanooga and the Tri-Cities area.
In a statement about the trip, NFIB state director Jim Brown said his organization?s members appreciate Ramsey taking time to listen to them and that they ?simply want a fair shake from their government.?
Recent independent reports confirm some good news ? that those business owners are still getting a better shake from state government in Tennessee than their counterparts are elsewhere.
Tennessee landed in first place in the report?s tax and regulation rankings, according to the report ?Enterprising States? released this summer by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
?Tennessee?s low cost of living, fourth-lowest state and local tax burden and manageable budget gap place it first in this year?s tax and regulation rankings, up two places from 2010,? the report reads. ?The home state of country music and Elvis? Graceland has long been known for its business-friendly legislature and for how its commissioners of economic development and revenue work together to make this ?No Surprises? regulatory policy possible.?
The chamber?s report goes on to cite Tennessee?s wide array of tax incentives to help new and expanding business across multiple industries create jobs.
?Boasting a relatively low state and local tax burden, the state touts the fact that it has no tax on personal income and no state property tax in its business attraction efforts,? the report notes. ?While the state does collect a franchise tax, excise taxes, and sales and use taxes, it offers businesses several exemptions and incentives related to each.?
Ramsey?s tour follows several recent sets of hearings and tours from groups of state lawmakers all centered around the same theme: finding ways to promote job-creation in the state.
Several weeks ago, for example, a task force of Republican state lawmakers heard testimony from small-business owners about basically the same thing Ramsey wants to hear about on his trip ? what can be done at the state level to promote job growth.
In September, state House Democrats launched a tour of the state over several days in which they asked for comments from the public about job-growth policies.
Jobs legislation is expected to be an early focus of the state Legislature when it reconvenes in January.
Source: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2011/oct/19/road-trip/
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