Senate bid: Bredesen tax break; Blackburn undisclosed credit

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen has written his city a six-figure check and removed his properties from a state program that provided him $520,600 in property tax breaks since 2011 for producing hay.

The Tennessean reports that Bredesen had four parcels removed from the Greenbelt program and paid Nashville’s government $181,700 in rollback taxes last month, reducing tax savings to $338,900.

Campaign spokeswoman Alyssa Hansen said there’s nothing to hide, since Bredesen’s land produced hay in legal compliance with the tax break. Since 2011, Bredesen paid $478,200 in property taxes on those parcels.

The Tennessean also reports that Bredesen’s Republican opponent, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, didn’t disclose a $100,000 line of credit to repair a South Carolina house she co-owns, and accrued $2,600 in late property tax penalties on the house since 2014.