This provides an opportunity to pursue two important goals: cut taxes (e.g. finally abolish the privilege tax, abolish the franchise & excise tax and/or reduce the sales tax) and/or substantially reduce the federal government’s stranglehold over Tennessee policies by reducing dependency on federal funds.
Another, unconventional, idea would be to drastically increase state legislators’ salaries, thereby making them less susceptible to special interests (e.g. potential job offers). Currently, Tennessee state legislators receive a salary of less than $25K per year. Raising this amount to about $100K would cost about $10 million per year and make state senators and representatives more independent.
Tennessee could also become an entirely debt-free state, paying off its remaining debt of about $1.5 billion dollars at once.