MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee state lawmakers continue to weigh in on the threat to withhold state sales tax revenue from Memphis over a ballot referendum to introduce gun control measures in the city.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said his office will not allow this measure to go on the November 2024 ballot, and the Shelby County Election Commission has stated they intend to abide by this decision.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton told ABC24 on Tuesday that they are working on a bill that would punish any such action like this going forward.
State Representative Antonio Parkinson, a Democrat from Memphis, said he understands why the city would want a referendum for voters to weigh in on local gun control measures.
“If there are policies that are coming from the state that are harmful to the city of Memphis, then the city of Memphis has the right to put things in place that will protect its citizens if the state is not,” Rep. Parkinson said.
The proposed measures include requiring handgun permits, banning assaults weapons and creating a "red flag” law.
“Guns are out there and shootings are happening on a regular basis,” Rep. Parkinson said. “We failed miserably.”
House Speaker Sexton maintains that the referendum is an attempt to go around state law.
“If the local government doesn’t have the authority or the ability or they’re trying to override state law, which they cannot do, then there needs to be a consequence to make sure that they don’t go down that road,” he said.
If the House Speaker followed through on the threat to withhold state sales tax from Memphis, he said it was cost the city close to $77 million. By comparison, Shelby County has contributed more than $1.24 billion to the Tennessee sales tax collection so far in 2024, per the Greater Memphis Chamber.
House Speaker Sexton wants to create a bill that could impose this kind of a penalty on all local governments that try to attempt a similar measure.
“They’re going to get the letter saying, ‘You’re outside state law, you don’t have this capability, you have ‘x’ number of days to fix it and if you don’t, we’re going to withhold the state’s share’s sales tax,’” he said, describing how it would work.
House Speaker Sexton said the federal government takes similar actions with states on a regular basis.
“The federal government does impose that will down on the state sometimes,” Sexton said. “And the state has to decide, ‘Is this something we fight or not? And if we do fight it, are we willing to give up the funding?’”
Rep. Parkinson disagrees with that comparison.
“There is money that comes with new federal laws,” he said. “So if you choose not to tap into that new federal law, they don’t necessarily in all cases say that, ‘We’re going to take money from you,’ they say that, ‘You just won’t have access to this new money.’”
House Speaker Sexton said they hope to introduce that new bill in January 2025. ABC24 reached out to the City of Memphis to see if they plan on pursuing any legal action against the state, but they said they have no further comment at this time.