East TN Lawmakers Address Citizens At Americans For Prosperity Event

Image Credit: Tori Jones Venable / Facebook

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

The Reignite the American Dream Dinner and Summit was held at the Meadowview Conference Center on Thursday.

The Americans for Prosperity group hosted community members to hear what lawmakers are planning for in the fight for the American Dream in Tennessee. 

A number of legislators who represent areas of East Tennessee were invited to speak on various policies that are impacting Tennesseans. 

U.S. Representative Diana Harshbarger, from the 1^st District, said the number one issue voters brought up to her was the economy. 

“When you have to decide whether you’re going to pay for gas and groceries, how they’re going to pay for rent, how are they going to pay just to live,” Harshbarger said. “The wages are not going up to meet the demands of the inflation and that’s a problem. So, they have to make those decisions at the kitchen table.”

Harshburger said the only way to stop inflation was to stop big government spending. The infrastructure bill, she stated, will help balance out the rising costs. 

11^th District representative Jeremy Faison agreed with Harshburger. 

“For the next three months, you’re not going to have a grocery tax,” Faison said. “We want to give that back to the people. We have provided a way for infrastructure. We passed $3 billion. The most ever in the history of Tennessee to go back to the locals all across Tennessee to work with the roads, making sure our roads are right. And over the next three years, you’ll see that money being spent and our roads are going to get better.”

State Senator Frank Niceley is working to outlaw a property tax at the statewide level. 

“That tax needs to be left for the counties, so counties can run their business with the property tax and the state doesn’t need to be tapping into that,” Niceley said.

Niceley said Tennessee is prepared for that to happen. 

“The logical thing to do, if we ever got in a real bind and had to have money, the easiest thing for the state to do would be go back to the state property tax, but we will make sure they can’t do that,” Niceley said. “And that just gives them more stability. Tennessee’s in really good shape right now. We have good surpluses. The economy is doing good, unemployment is down.”

Niceley and Faison voiced that the majority of citizens they spoke to requested to simply be left alone. 

“The majority of my people at home say, ‘hey, can you leave us alone?’” Faison said. ”‘Don’t pass any more laws. Whoever you know in D.C., ask them to just leave us alone. Don’t tax us anymore. We’ve got it from here.’“

“They don’t want us to do anything crazy,” Niceley said. “They’re beginning to worry about this central bank digital currency that the world banks are talking about. They don’t like that.”

Faison also noted his desire for the public to make their voices heard. He encourages citizens to write and speak to lawmakers regarding what they would like to see accomplished in Nashville.