Tagged: Tennessee

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has signed into law a reduction in the state's sales tax on groceries.

Starting July 1, Tennessee shoppers will pay a 5% sales tax on retail food items. That's a reduction from the current 5.25% tax and down from 5.5% in the previous budget year. The regular sales tax is 7%, while local governments can add an additional tax of up to 2.75%.

he reduction in the sales tax on groceries was part of Haslam's legislative agenda and was approved in tandem with cuts to the state's taxes on inheritance, gifts and income from interest and dividends.

Media organizations in Tennessee are balking at the amount the Department of Children’s Services is charging for copies of records related to DCS cases.

The media outlets have for months been seeking records for children with prior DCS contact who died or nearly died in the months leading up to July, 2012. After a judge ordered copies of 50 such cases to be handed over to journalists, the DCS tried to charge $9,000 for the records.

The Tennessean newspaper reports its attorney, Robb Harvey, has filed a complaint with the judge point out that the amount the DCS is seeking is nearly nine times what the judge had previously said was reasonable.

DCS attorneys say the extra costs are necessary so that paralegals can be hired and trained to review the case records that are being released to media.

The Tennessee Department of Children's Services is reviewing its actions after a 17-year-old boy the agency was supervising gunned down a fellow high school student.

The Tennessean reports the teen was released from the DCS's Woodland Hills Development Center for delinquent youth in December. He was required to have regular monthly phone calls and visits with a caseworker, but at the time of the April 11 shooting no one at the agency had been able to make contact with him for nearly two months.

Interim DCS commissioner Jim Henry said he believes the agency acted appropriately but is assessing its actions. Henry said there was little in the teen's past to suggest he was capable of murder.

The teen is in juvenile detention awaiting a June 28 hearing.