By Walter F. Roche Jr.
Acting quickly at the governor's behest, the Tennessee General Assembly has granted Memphis based FedEx a multimillion dollar tax break that far surpasses the thousands of dollars in campaign contributions House and Senate members received from the company.
The bill, which creates a new cap on annual aviation fuel tax collections, will, at least in the foreseeable future, benefit only FedEx.
FedEx employees, directly and through the company political action committee, have donated well over $100,000 in the past year to legislators, including Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell who took in about $14,600 for her campaign committee and her own political action fund.
Under the bill fuel tax collections from any one corporation would be capped at increasingly lower amounts over the next four years after which it would remain at $10.5 million. Currently FedEx pays some 32.5 million per year in Tennessee aviation taxes.
Aviation fuel is taxed in Tennessee at 4.5 per cent.
The bill was proposed by the Bill Haslam administration. The bill is on his desk and he is expected to sign it. Campaign finance reports for 2014 show Haslam's campaign garnered a single $125 contribution for a FedEx employee
In addition to the contributions to Harwell, the FedEx PAC and its employees donated $10,000 to the Senate Republican Caucus, $5,000 to the Senate Democratic Caucus and $11,000 to the Tennessee Legislative Campaign Committee, which backs Republican candidates
The House Republican Caucus collected $10,000 from the FedEx PAC, while the Tennessee Democratic Party got $5,000. Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey's PAC collected $2,500.
Among other individual legislators, FedEx donated $2,500 each to Sen. Brian Kelsey and Sen. Jim Tracy, both Republicans.
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