Tennessee is one of the nine states that significantly cut taxes in the 2016 legislative session, according to an annual report released last week by the American Legislative Exchange Councils Center for State Fiscal Reform.

In the ALEC news release, Johnathan Williams, chief economist and vice president of the Center for State Fiscal Reform, said that Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Utah were also highlighted for enacting changes that provided substantial taxpayer relief.

While hardworking American taxpayers have painstakingly waited 30 years for comprehensive tax reform at the federal level, states continue to take the lead by providing meaningful tax relief, he said.

Of the nine states, Mississippi, Florida, New York and Tennessee achieved landmark tax relief during their 2016 legislative sessions.

The report said Tennessees recent phase-outs of the death tax and Hall income tax the 6-percent tax on interest from savings, notes, stocks and bonds, which will be phased-out by one percent each year until its complete elimination in 2022 will likely heighten the states prosperity, based on evidence from other no-income states.

As Tennessee lawmakers are already considering ways to further provide taxpayer relief in the 2017 legislative session, the report pointed out that the burden of taxation can be successfully minimized by enacting a principled tax system that isnt aimed at class warfare or social engineering.

Tax reform may have stalled out on the federal level, but these nine states took a step in the right direction, Joel Griffith, director of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force at ALEC, added in the release. After all, states with lower tax burdens and more economic freedom regularly outperform their higher tax and more restrictive counterparts. Legislators successfully implementing pro-growth tax cuts are leading the way for others.

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Tennessee highlighted for 2016 tax cuts - Maryville Daily Times