{"id":38834,"date":"2019-06-03T11:03:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T15:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/?p=38834"},"modified":"2020-05-20T13:15:59","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T17:15:59","slug":"against-the-odds-fiber-optic-tax-exemption-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/2019\/06\/against-the-odds-fiber-optic-tax-exemption-passes\/","title":{"rendered":"Against the odds, fiber optic tax exemption passes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-38835\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/17-1-768x768-340x340.jpg\" alt=\"Cordell Hull Building\" width=\"340\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/17-1-768x768-340x340.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/17-1-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/>In the final days of the legislative session, TTA members won a significant victory that at times appeared to be a long shot. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWith this bill, the stakes were high, and we were able to overcome huge odds to get it passed,\u201d said TTA Executive Director Levoy Knowles. \u201cThis is a win for TTA members, but more importantly it\u2019s a win for the thousands of rural Tennesseans waiting on fiber optic service.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until the passage of a last-minute exemption bill (<a href=\"http:\/\/wapp.capitol.tn.gov\/apps\/BillInfo\/Default.aspx?BillNumber=SB1458\">SB1458\/HB 605<\/a>), TTA members faced millions of dollars in new taxes from the Department of Revenue\u2019s recent decision to tax the installation and leasing\u00a0of fiber optic cable. Legislators, who have focused on eliminating tax exemptions throughout the session, approved the bill exempting fiber installation from the tax.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TTA members had argued that adding millions in taxes to fiber optic installation would prohibit them from expanding broadband networks. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe governor and other officials are promoting broadband deployment through state grants,\u201d Knowles said. \u201cIn fighting for this exemption, we explained that the collection of this new tax would consume the funding that some members had received. Fortunately, our legislators agreed with our position that such a policy really didn\u2019t make sense.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The House passed the bill with a vote of 85-10, and the Senate version passed unanimously. Introduced in both houses the first week in February, the governor signed the bill on May 24. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bill was debated thoroughly in several committees, along with many meetings with all the stakeholders including the department of revenue, legislative leaders, and TTA members. Knowles credited the bill\u2019s sponsors <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capitol.tn.gov\/senate\/members\/S15.html\">Sen. Paul Bailey<\/a>, R-Sparta, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capitol.tn.gov\/house\/members\/H92.html\">Rep. Rick Tillis<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, R-Lewisburg, for their dogged determination to see the bill through. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBoth men have proven once again that they understand the importance of broadband for rural Tennesseans and that they are willing to fight for their rural constituents,\u201d Knowles said. \u201cTTA members and our customers owe them a good deal of appreciation for championing this bill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the final days of the legislative session, TTA members won a significant victory that at times appeared to be a long shot. \u201cWith this bill, the stakes were high, and we were able to overcome huge odds to get it passed,\u201d said TTA Executive Director Levoy Knowles. \u201cThis is a win for TTA members,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":38835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[306],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}