NASHVILLE, TN – The Tennessee Republican Party will continue to oppose creation of a state income tax even though the Tennessee Democrat Party has just elected a new chairman whose idea of “change” is the state taking more of it out of your pocket via an income tax.

In 1999, as a member of his party’s executive committee, new TNDP chairman Chip Forrester voted for a resolution calling for creation of a state income tax of 2.5 percent, to raise an additional $2 billion for a state government that had already proven unwilling to live within its means.

By contrast, the Tennessee Republican Party came out firmly and unequivocally against the proposed state income tax in 1999 – and has remained staunchly opposed to it.

“The Tennessee Democrat Party for years has tried to hide its pro-income tax stance, knowing that most Tennesseans, including many of their own voters, oppose the tax and believe the state’s budget problems are caused by too much spending, not by too little taxes,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party.

“By choosing as chairman someone who advocated for and voted for a state income tax, the leadership of the Tennessee Democrat Party has done the people of Tennessee a service: they have clarified for all to see that the Tennessee Democrat Party wants an income tax. When Chip Forrester and the liberal candidates he will recruit to run for the state legislature promise ‘change,’ what they really will be planning is a return to pushing ideas that Republicans and most Tennesseans rejected a decade ago.”