Lawmakers are attempting to hide who’s receiving $1.5B in tax refunds. We won’t let them

Tennessee State Capitol. (Photo: John Partipilo)

On June 30, the nearly 60,000 names of businesses that received over $1.5 billion in tax refunds last year will disappear from the state’s website. 

These names include some of the state’s largest corporations, such as FedEx and Brown-Forman, the parent company of Jack Daniel’s, as well as those connected to lawmakers, like Lee Company, the HVAC business owned by Gov. Bill Lee’s family.

The public database doesn’t specify the amount a company is set to receive, but provides ranges that top out at $10,000 and above. Transparency advocates have called this inadequate.

“To say something is above $10,000 is not transparent, because it could be $10,500 or $100,000,” said Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.

Officials won’t say which companies benefit from $1.2B tax refund. Property records provide a clue.

Lawmakers approved the tax refund and a $4 billion cut after officials from the Lee administration said that the state faced a potential lawsuit over the way it collected the revenue. No lawsuit was filed. 

State Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis Republican, said he didn’t file for a refund through his funeral services business, but thought the transparency approved was enough. 

“It was the taxpayer’s money to begin with, they sent it to the government, and the government decided they didn’t need it, so they’re giving it back to the taxpayer,” Taylor said. 

 As part of the legislation, Tennessee published the names for 30 days, after which they will disappear. Below is all the information published in a database created by the Lookout. 

Sam Stockard contributed to this report.

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