Free Republic

<p>Fiddle-playing Charlie Daniels, automobile magnate Lee Beaman and local talk radio hosts have one thing in common: They are largely responsible for breathing some financial life into the campaign of Antonio Lopez, the retired Air Force colonel challenging House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh's bid for re-election.</p>

Write-in foe Lopez has Naifeh running 'like I'm behind' By Thomas Jordan September 8, 2002 COVINGTON, Tenn. - Antonio Lopez displayed the swagger of the fighter pilot he once was when he recently recounted meeting his future wife while they were both in the Air Force. "She was the cutest nurse at the hospital and I was the handsomest fighter pilot, so it was a match made in heaven," Lopez said. That same self-assuredness helped Lopez, a 67-year-old Tipton County resident, win the Republican nomination for House District 81 as a write-in candidate Aug. 1. On Nov. 5, the retired...

From: lopeztoto@yahoo.com To: ViceSecretary@TiptonGOP.org August 18, 2002 To my fellow Republicans: The campaign to become the next representative from the 81st District, Tennessee House of Representatives, continues. This past week saw more movement towards that end. A headquarters has now been established!! Located at the intersection of Main Street in Atoka and Highway 51 South, a very new prefabricated model home has been donated to the Republican Party of Tipton County for use as a campaign headquarters until the November 5 General Election. The headquarters will be used by the Party and by the two Republican candidates for the State...

Naifeh says income tax a 'dead issue' August 9, 2002 House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh said Friday the income tax is a "dead issue" that should not eclipse education, economic development and other issues in general election campaigns. "In the 103rd General Assembly the income tax is a dead issue in both the Senate and the House," Naifeh said. "The revenue stream we adopted in the 102nd Assembly is the funding stream we're going to be using in the next few years." His remarks come two days after state Sen. Jerry Cooper, D-Morrison, expressed similar sentiments. Naifeh was a leading proponent...

<p>A retired Air Force colonel's write-in campaign to oust House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh from his West Tennessee House seat may be gathering steam.</p> <p>A Tipton County election official said three of every five voters showing up in the early voting period that started July 12 were requesting write-in ballots. The write-in candidate, Tipton County Republican Chairman Tony Lopez of Covington, is passing out stickers with his name printed on them to make it easy to paste on the ballot.</p>

<p>A Democratic write-in candidate has emerged in the 17th state Senate District, where incumbent Bob Rochelle pulled out of the race earlier this week.</p> <p>Sherry Fisher of Smith County will run as a write-in candidate for the Aug. 1 election; early voting started yesterday.</p>

Commission to study taxation Panel to report findings by 2004 By The Associated Press July 11, 2002 NASHVILLE - The tax debate that has dominated Tennessee politics for four years is likely to continue with the creation of a tax study commission. Lawmakers approved a measure sponsored by Sen. Joe Haynes, D-Goodlettsville, to create a 15-member independent commission. The legislation requires the commission to perform a "comprehensive study" of taxation in Tennessee and report its findings to the Legislature by July 2004. The commission is to evaluate the soundness, fairness, equity and deductibility of the state's tax system. The General...

Record tax a political bull's-eye Anti-spending Republicans wear it and call it 'victory' July 8, 2002 NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican lawmakers who voted for $933 million in new taxes - the largest tax increase in Tennessee history - expect to be targeted in this year's elections. "I imagine that campaign mailers are being prepared as we speak," said Rep. Bobby Wood (R-Harrison), the longest-serving Republican in the Tennessee House. More than 60 percent of the House votes for the bill were from Republicans. About $600 million of this year's tax package will be generated from a 1-cent increase in the...

More battles inevitable, but is income tax? NEWS ANALYSIS By Richard Locker locker@gomemphis.com July 7, 2002 NASHVILLE - The monumental political battle over state tax reform ended after 3 years Wednesday when income tax advocates conceded defeat. Hours later the General Assembly approved a 17 percent increase in the state sales tax - from 6 percent to 7 percent - that opponents said made Tennessee's tax system even more regressive than it was. And although tax reform advocates admit they lost the battle, they say they are not surrendering. Even conservative Republican Sen. David Fowler of Chattanooga, an income tax...

Bruising tax battle changes legislature Naifeh, reform are big losers By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com July 6, 2002 NASHVILLE - Exhausted and bitterly disappointed by the defeat of his tax reform crusade, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh was probably never so relieved to utter the words "adjourned sine die" as he was this Independence Day. "Sine die" is Latin for "without a day," and in parliamentary terms it means the end of the 102nd General Assembly - the longest, most divisive and most contentious General Assembly since the 1920 ratification of women's suffrage. Just as certainly, though, the cause of tax reform...

<p>State lawmakers wound up their 102nd session yesterday after a grueling four-year fight over taxes and returned home to face voters and questions about why they approved the largest tax increase in the state's history. Most legislators interviewed by The Tennessean acknowledged that the tax vote could hurt members seeking re-election. However, with an income tax dead, they said they had no choice but to vote for the $933 million tax package so 22,000 furloughed state employees could return to work and state government could resume normal operations.</p>

Lawmakers raise sales, other taxes to end shutdown By Paula Wade and Richard Locker wade@gomemphis.com locker@gomemphis.com July 4, 2002 NASHVILLE - The Tennessee legislature Wednesday raised the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent beginning July 15, (NOTE: SALES TAX ON FOOD WAS NOT RAISED)and hiked other taxes to restore state government to full operation Friday morning after four days in partial shutdown. Lawmakers adopted the mostly lobbyist-written tax plan after House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, Gov. Don Sundquist and other reform-minded advocates of an income tax conceded defeat Wednesday morning, ending a 3d-year budget stalemate. Sundquist said he will sign...

Still no budget; House kills CATS Naifeh backs off plan for immediate vote on income tax By Tom Humphrey, News-Sentinel Nashville bureau July 3, 2002 NASHVILLE - The House on Tuesday night scratched "CATS," a patchwork of tax increases, while House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh backed away from an income tax vote. At one point, Naifeh had agreed to put his 4.5 percent flat-rate income tax plan, which fell five votes short of passage in May, to a vote two hours after action on the CATS package. Instead, he announced late in the evening that there was not enough support for...

John Ford missing for key Senate business; 'family emergency' cited By Richard Locker locker@gomemphis.com July 2, 2002 NASHVILLE - Where is Sen. John Ford? The Memphis Democrat left the Senate Sunday afternoon after he voted for an income tax-sales tax bill that won Senate approval but did not return while all 32 of his colleagues struggled on for another eight hours to pass an appropriations bill. Ford was not present to vote at 11:32 p.m. Sunday on the appropriations bill - the key document required by the Tennessee Constitution that determines how taxpayer money is spent. It was the legislature's...

<p>Not a lot was accomplished in state government yesterday. More than half of the state employees stayed home in an unprecedented partial shutdown, and the General Assembly took no action on any tax or budget measures to resolve the impasse that led to the shutdown.</p>

<p>House members shunned and defeated a tax plan last night — passed earlier by the Senate — that would have let voters decide in November whether they wanted to fund state government through an income tax or through a higher state sales tax.</p>

<p>The possibility of at least a partial state shutdown will loom large today over the state legislature, which has until midnight tomorrow to approve a state budget. Little progress was made yesterday. The Senate yesterday broke a self-imposed deadline to pass new taxes, delaying votes on two tax proposals, one of them an income tax. A Senate vote was taken on House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh's income tax plan — but in a way that income tax advocates denounced as an insincere ploy. They urged senators to vote against the measure, which had been attached as an amendment to another bill, saying they would bring up the tax bill later for discussion. Not a single senator voted for it in the way it was presented.</p>

The Oak Ridger Coffey Time David Coffey David Coffey: Sad and glad about Tennessee Who knows what tomorrow may bring, but as this is written the Legislature is still being held hostage by the Naifeh/Rochelle/Wilder/Sundquist income tax assault. No, the whole state is being held hostage. Everyone suffers when such strong-arm tactics are imposed on us. The DOGS budget was contrived to scare, to put the worst face on what could come from this Legislature. No one would ever vote for it except to further endanger Tennessee while bringing yet more pressure for an unconstitutional income tax. Local governments have...

Budget thriller takes new twists By Richard Locker and Paula Wade locker@gomemphis.com wade@gomemphis.com June 28, 2002 NASHVILLE - A Senate committee Thursday blocked an attempt to move the outline of a plan coupling sales and business tax hikes with limited spending cuts to the Senate floor for a vote. The attempt by income tax opponents to bypass the Senate Finance Committee's usual review of the so-called CATS plan failed in the committee on a 5-6 vote. Its sponsor, Sen. Doug Jackson (D-Dickson), blasted the panel but pledged to try again. In the House of Representatives, Speaker Jimmy Naifeh said he...

<p>BILL STEBER / STAFF House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh makes a surprise visit outside the Capitol to shake hands with tax reform supporters, teasing a dancing Shannon Houska yesterday.</p> <p>Pro-tax protesters partied the day away yesterday as they celebrated beating the anti-tax protesters out of the prime spots at War Memorial Plaza.</p>