This Sunday, please make the time to honor your mom for her sacrifice, commitment and love. Mothers, we salute you and thank God for the sustaining influence you make in our lives.

Tight Budget Costs 2,000 Jobs, But Ballroom Project Continues

NASHVILLE, TN - The image of Nero fiddling while Rome burned has a new and modern update today: Gov. Phil Bredesen, announcing he will slash more than 2,000 people from the state payroll even as his administration continues to spend $12 million to build a lavish underground party hall at the governor’s mansion.

“This governor refused to stop the ballroom project months ago, as he was urged to do, even though the economy and revenue were already slowing,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, “We feel for the thousands of state employees who will lose their jobs even as the ballroom will be completed.”

Administration Document Indicates Revenue Department Knew Tax on Digital Downloads Wasn’t Legal

NASHVILLE, TN – The Tennessee Republican Party today called on the Bredesen administration to stop trying to slip a new tax on digital downloads past the legislature by calling it a “technical correction” to the tax code – and to come clean on why it has been forcing some companies to collect the tax for the past four months even though the Department of Revenue said as recently as mid-March that digital downloads “are not subject to the sales and use tax.”

“The Department of Revenue has been talking out of both sides of its mouth on this issue, and it needs to stop,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the TRP. “The Revenue Department told companies that state law required them to collect the tax starting January 1, but a comprehensive ruling issued March 12 by Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr explained in great legal detail that digital downloads are not subject to the tax.

“Now the Department is trying to impose the tax – which it has been collecting since January 1 – via the ‘technical corrections’ legislation that the Bredesen administration files annually at the end of each legislative session. Frankly, that’s a lousy way to enact new tax policy,” Hobbs said.

Mexican Victory over French at Puebla in 1862 Reminds Us of Importance in Protecting a Nation’s Culture

NASHVILLE, TN - The Tennessee Republican Party recognizes the importance of today, Cinco de Mayo, in Mexican history and urges all Americans to reflect on and honor what the day celebrates. Cinco de Mayo is a great day of celebration and commemoration of the victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, a battle to protect their nation and culture from occupation by the French forces under Napoleon III.

While the war continued for five more years, the victory at Puebla became a symbol of Mexican resistance to foreign domination.