State lawmakers discuss 2026 legislative priorities

JACKSON, Tenn. -Americans For Prosperity held local state senators and representatives to discuss their plans for the next session.

Republican State Senators John Stevens (TN-24) and Brent Taylor (TN-31) joined State Representatives Chris Todd (TN-73), Brock Martin (TN-79), Rusty Grills (TN-77), and Ron Gant (TN-94) in Jackson on Friday.

Rep. Todd represents District 73, which is part of Madison County, and he said his goal is to end property tax.

“The biggest task I have before me is eliminating the property tax all together and converting that to a sales tax and maybe one other tax that’s more of a consumption based tax,” said Todd.

The county or city will still receive the same amount of revenue they are getting right now, but just from sales tax. Todd said he believes it will help a lot of citizens.

“I think eliminating the property tax all together will take care of a lot of folks and make things much more sustainable for our state,” said Todd.

Rep. Martin represents District 79, which covers parts of Carroll, Gibson, and Henderson Counties, and he said his focus is healthcare accessibility in rural areas.

“One of the things I am working on in Nashville is to make sure rural health care is priority, so increase access, affordability, and quality is the main component of that,” said Martin.

He said he is working on bringing more health visits over the phone.

“One of the things we are looking at doing is increasing telemedicine abilities. It gets high quality care closer to the person which is what can help curve the cost and help reduce a lot of those barriers,” said Martin.

These lawmakers said they are also focused on the Regulatory Freedom Act, which would allow more monitoring over the expensive and burdensome regulations.

The next legislative session will begin in January.

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