BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
New State AG Once Called State Income Tax "Unconstitutional"
Ben Cunningham sent me a nice Christmas present yesterday - a link to a Knoxville News Sentinelprofile of new state Attorney General Robert Cooper which includes mention that Cooper once wrote an article for the Tennessee Bar Journal that argued that a state income tax (as proposed by then-Gov. Ned McWherter) would violate Tennessee's constitution. That's a vast improvement over the legal thinking of his predecessor, Paul Summers, who as AG during the most recent Tennessee income tax war in the late 1990s and early 2000s, wrote an opinion that a state income tax was constitutional. The state Supreme Court has ruled thrice that such a tax is not permissible under the state constitution. Summers' legal opinion was highly flawed as he completely ignored one whole section of the state constitution.
On Tuesday I'm going to contact the Tennessee Bar Association and request a copy of Cooper's 1992 Tennessee Bar Journal article and permission to upload it here as a PDF file.
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