Beacon Center

19 Dec, 2019

Williamson County mother files public records suit against Tennessee School Boards Association

By |2020-02-23T10:12:43-06:00December 19, 2019|Categories: functional equivalent, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , |0 Comments

A Williamson County mother, represented by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, has filed a public records lawsuit against the Tennessee School Boards Association after being denied access to the association's records. The lawsuit, Marren v. Tennessee School Boards Association, claims that the association is the "functional equivalent" of a government entity under the functional equivalent doctrine established by the Tennessee Supreme Court, and thus its records are subject to the Public Records Act. The school board association, in denying public records requests from Karrie Marren, claimed it was "a private, nonprofit organization" and was not subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act. Marren had requested: TSBA's training materials for school [...]

2 Jun, 2016

72% of Tennesseans think the state is not transparent with economic incentives to corporations

By |2019-09-11T18:56:25-05:00June 2, 2016|Categories: economic development|Tags: , , , |2 Comments

Just how transparent is the state of Tennessee with its economic development programs? In the eyes of Tennesseans, not very. A new poll by icitizen and The Beacon Center of Tennessee measured opinions about the state's economic development activities. The Beacon Center favors stemming "corporate handouts" to specific companies in favor of lowering business taxes for everyone. Most of the questions were designed to measure approval or disapproval of incentive programs. While the poll results show mixed opinions about tax breaks for select companies, what's indisputable is that Tennesseans largely think the state is not transparent about them. A whopping 72 percent agreed with the statement: "State government is not transparent with the incentives it [...]

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