Low-income Tennessee families pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes than any other income group due to a reliance on sales taxes. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

In 2023 and 2024, Tennessee lawmakers passed back-to-back multibillion-dollar tax cuts for businesses, pushing the state to rely even more on its sales tax to fund government spending.

Nearly every state economist who presented to the Tennessee funding board Monday noted this tax burden shift as officials considered how to project the state government’s future budget.

“We are more dependent on sales tax than historically we have been,” said Jeff Bjark, the director of research with Tennessee’s Department of Revenue, to the board.

Tennessee is one of the lowest-taxed states in the nation, according to a 202

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