Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee (AFP-TN) released its 2025 Legislative Agenda, calling on state lawmakers in the Tennessee General Assembly to pass legislation focused on three topics during this legislative session.
AFP-TN’s The Volunteer Way 2025 Legislative Agenda urges state lawmakers to pass the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act as well as legislation concerning universal school choice and state-wide property taxes.
For years @AFPTN has fought for transparency in the TN House. Thanks to Speaker @CSexton25's leadership, we finally have it! House committee votes will now be recorded. Transparency for the government, privacy for the people! Thank you Speaker Sexton, Leader @WilliamLamberth &… pic.twitter.com/sYvO6nv7XG
— Michael Lotfi (@MichaelLotfi) January 15, 2025
The REINS Act, which is a proposal aimed at increasing legislative oversight of administrative agency rulemaking, has been debated by lawmakers at the federal level for years. A similar bill has yet to be introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly.
“We must move away from unelected bureaucrats making laws and back to elected officials. It’s time to put REINS on bureaucrats, once and for all,” AFP-TN said.
AFP-TN is also continuing its call from last year for state lawmakers to ensure the passage of a constitutional amendment that would ban state-wide property taxes.
Senate Joint Resolution 0001 would prohibit the Tennessee General Assembly from levying, authorizing, or otherwise permitting a state tax on property by amending Article II, Section 28 of the Tennessee Constitution, which currently authorizes taxation of all property according to its value by any taxing authority, including the State, counties, and municipalities.
During last year’s legislative session, the resolution passed both the Tennessee Senate and House, and if passed by both chambers by a two-thirds majority again during the current legislative session, the resolution will be presented to voters on the 2026 statewide general election ballot for Tennesseans to pass or reject.
“Tennessee needs a constitutional ban on state-wide real and personal property taxes to ensure government is not given the ability to expand its power and spending,” AFP-TN said.
Finally, the last agenda item AFP-TN is pushing for this legislative session is for lawmakers to pass a universal school choice program, specifically the Education Freedom Act proposed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who has since called for a special session to give lawmakers dedicated time to review and pass the program.
“Every parent, student, and teacher across the state should have the right to benefit from the school choice program being proposed by Governor Lee. It should be universal in application, and preserve home/private school independence,” AFP-TN said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tennessee State Capitol” by Ken Lund. CC BY-SA 2.0.
