Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Politics / Woods Gibbons Proposes Pilot Oil Tax for Pre-K
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 11:14 AM
Bill Gibbons, relishing his role as the skunk at the garden party in the governor's race, came up with a great way to fund universal pre-K education today at a candidate forum: Gibbons wants to tax Bill Haslam.
Actually, Gibbons proposed reducing fees the state pays retailers to sell lottery tickets and putting that money into the pre-K program. In the process, he took a swipe at Big Oil, a.k.a. the Haslam family's Pilot Corp. Asked whether he favors expanding pre-K to all children, Gibbons said:
Simply put, I'm for it. We need to move toward making pre-K education available for every child in Tennessee whose parents want it, voluntary not mandatory. The question is how to pay for it without raising taxes, and we need to be creative in figuring some ways to do that. Here's one way. We've spent some of our lottery money on pre-K education. But frankly, we have big chain retailers taking in tens of millions of dollars in lottery money as a result of lottery tickets sold at their establishments. We need to look at reducing the amount of money those big chain retailers are taking from the lottery and put that money into pre-K education. The result frankly will be that Big Oil is getting less money from the lottery but the children of our state are getting more benefits from the lottery.
As for the rest of the candidates, Democrats Mike McWherter and Kim McMillan were for expanding pre-K too. Republicans Haslam and Ron Ramsey said we probably can't afford it, and Zach Wamp didn't really say one way or the other.
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Hey, which browser is this site optimised for? Looks a little funny in Safari. Still nice site though :).
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Would this Gibbons fellow be one and the same with the beggar District Attorney General Bill Gibbons in Shelby County who asks others at the local, state, and federal level to raise taxes he can't vote on?
131.) BILL GIBBONS IS SUNDQUIST'S CHOICE TO FILL DIST. ATTY. JOB
By Paula Wade The Commercial Appeal
Nashville Bureau
August 9, 1996
County Commissioner Bill Gibbons is Gov. Don Sundquist's choice as the new district attorney general for Shelby County.
Gibbons, a lawyer and longtime Republican activist identified with the party's moderate wing...
97.) DIST. ATTY. ASKS ASSESSOR TO RECHECK HIS APPRAISAL
By Louis Graham The Commercial Appeal
December 27, 1998
94.) DAS BACK TAX REFORM FOR PUBLIC SAFETY'S SAKE
By Paula Wade The Commercial Appeal
Nashville Bureau
June 23, 1999
Public safety will be in danger without state tax reform, Tennessee's 31 district attorneys general announced Tuesday, pledging to support Gov. Don Sundquist and legislative leaders in pursuing tax reform.
[Yes, DA Gibbons was one of the 31.]
63.) CAPITAL BRIEFING
By Compiled by our Nashville and Washington bureaus.
District attorneys push for loan forgiveness
WASHINGTON - Memphis Dist. Atty. Bill Gibbons came to Washington recently to lobby with other district attorneys for federal help to keep their young prosecutors around long enough to become old and experienced.
9.) Gibbons seeking help for office -- District Attorney says prosecutors needed
By Daniel Connolly daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com
May 14, 2009
Even as Shelby County considers cutting 100 workers, Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons is asking for permission to hire eight more prosecutors to handle a sharp increase in criminal cases.
Gibbons asked county commissioners for $709,000 in additional funds for the 2009-10 fiscal year, including pay boosts for two employees.
