WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): The Tennessee General Assembly got underway on Tuesday with lawmakers easing into their respective priorities for the session. With us to talk about this and other issues is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.
BLANK: Otis, for years now, there's been some discussion about getting rid of sales taxes on groceries in Tennessee. The state rate is about 4% with some extra change in local taxes. So, about 6.75% on most groceries. Why are both parties now saying it's maybe time to remove this tax, and is there a difference in their plans?
SANFORD: Where the Democrats are concerned, they've been talking about trying to get rid of the grocery tax for years. But now, where the Republicans are concerned, they know that the term "affordability" is not a hoax. And the best way to deal with that, in their minds, in Tennessee, is to do something about the grocery tax. The difference between the two is that Democrats believe that the reductions need to be made up somewhere else. For example, let's get rid of the governor's voucher program, or get rid of some of those tax cuts for the corporate people, which is never going to happen. I mean, the Republicans are not going to do that. And the Republicans are saying straight up, let's just get rid of the sales tax on groceries, and they think they can do it without any other adjustments.
BLANK: But why are Democrats skeptical of that?
SANFORD: They insist that if they cut the tax, then other programs that help lower income people will likely be cut as a result of it. And we'll have to see about that. We do have a pretty healthy reserve, but it has been going down, and there were some concerns about that in the future. So, we just have to see if the Republicans are right about this. The Democrats don't think so, and they think that lower income people will be hurt as a result of it.
BLANK: Well, another bill that seems to have bipartisan support is one that creates recall elections for local offices in Tennessee. Remind us, Otis, what sparked this effort and are Democrats and Republicans motivated by the same kind of principles behind recalling elected officials?
SANFORD: Well, I think what gave it big steam last year had to do with our Memphis-Shelby County School Board and its decision to fire Marie Feagins. And that is really the reason why there's this big push now for recall. And it does seem as if it will likely pass. And I do think that it will be applied statewide.
BLANK: Right, this bill is unusual because of that. It's not just carving out a recall process for Shelby County. This is, as you said, statewide, which means it would need to be embraced by smaller communities, rural counties. Do you think it's wanted there too?
SANFORD: They will probably say, "Well, it's not going to apply to us. We don't have that many incompetent people in our small towns. We don't have enough money for anybody to really get all upset over anyway." I don't think that it will be a big issue in other parts of the state. And I think that the lawmakers from those areas of the state will go back and tell their constituents, "Yeah, we're making it statewide, but it really applies to Shelby County. They are the ones with the problem."
BLANK: Well, yesterday, Otis, Republican lawmakers also revealed a major focus of their lawmaking this session, which is a bunch of new anti-immigration laws. Apparently, our state leaders sat down with the White House's Stephen Miller and came up with more ways to make it harder for immigrants in Tennessee, like English-only drivers' license tests, penalties for local governments that don't help ICE... Why do Republicans feel they need to send a really strong message about immigration this year?
SANFORD: Because the White House and this president has told them to do so. We have a governor who will basically do anything that this president wants him to do. We have two senators who are doing the same thing, and one of them, Marsha Blackburn, is running for governor herself. So there's just this fervor to say Tennessee is going to lead the way in making it harder for immigrants to even exist in the state of Tennessee. And it's all being driven by Stephen Miller, who a lot of people have a lot of different names for him and I won't repeat some of them.
BLANK: I guess I've been lacking -- or maybe it's not out there --the kind of information that would lead me to think that illegal immigration is a really bad problem in the state of Tennessee. I'm just missing that information where there's a dire need to address this right now. Am I wrong about that? Have I not been reading the right articles?
SANFORD: No. I mean, you won't find it anywhere, Chris. We do not have an immigration problem in the state. This is a manufactured crisis. The Republicans keep talking about safety on the roads. Well, they have presented no empirical data that says that immigrants on the road are more dangerous than anybody else. This is just, again, a way to appease this White House and do anything that this president wants to have done, and take some pride in doing so.
