What Makes the Tennessee Tax System Regressive and Why Does Hardin County Have to Make It Worse?

A January 2003 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) report, Who Pays, found that Tennessee had the third most regressive tax system in the nation.

The report showed that the poorest twenty percent of non-elderly Tennessee families paid, on average, 11.7 percent of their income in state and local taxes. Hardin County would be about 12.5 to 13 percent.

By contrast, middle-income Tennesseans paid 8.8 percent of their income in tax, while the very wealthiest 1 percent of Tennessee taxpayers paid just 3.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes.

In other words, the poorest Tennesseans paid three to four times more of their income in taxes than did the very wealthiest families.

In Hardin County it is even more because of our artificially low property tax rate. Sixth (6th) lowest in the State that has the lowest tax burden on it's citizens, in the entire Country. It would be about four time as much in taxes than those at the other end of this bell curve.

Your at the bottom of the bottom, if you have anything to be taxed. Our poorest and middle class folks, who don't have much to be taxed, are at the top of the top in the percentage of their income they pay in state and local taxes.

We can do better. We need to rethink that policy. Know what I mean?

FYI We have a 19% Poverty Rate among adults and 26% among children. Our elderly population is well above average for the State. Face it, we are older and poorer than the average Tennessean and we are infested with drugs. Gotta problem here?

Later

Ted