Freedom to start a business, keep more of your money, and manage your property without burdensome government restrictions. If that sounds like your kind of place to live and work, you might want to start packing. Lisa Fletcher takes us to the freest city in Tennessee.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

This might look like an average American city with its big-box wholesale stores and industrial parks, but there’s more going on here than meets the eye.

Welcome to Lah-Verne, Tennessee, a town built on the idea that freedom isn’t just a word, but a way of doing business, earning it the title of “the freest city” in the state.

Lisa Fletcher: What does free mean to you?

Mayor Jason Cole: You’re not burdened as a resident, as a business owner or being burdensome as the government. And so it’s being open, transparent, and being able to work with anyone.

Mayor Jason Cole has been guiding Lavergne’s course since 2018. The city of 40,000 sits about a half hour southeast of Nashville.

While “Music City” has all the fame and fanfare, it landed at the bottom of the state’s “freest” list.

This is the second time Lavergne has been at the top, each award earned under Mayor Cole’s leadership.

The Beacon Center, an independent research group, ranks the state’s 30 largest cities in Tennessee based on how local policies impact people’s everyday lives, from taxes and property rights to business regulations and individual liberty.

Mayor Jason Cole: We’re a very welcoming community when it comes to businesses. Our policy is very simplistic. We want to help you get in, get through our planning commission, and then get you to the point where you can start construction. and then really we want to get out of their way so that they can do what they do best.

And that approach, says Cole, is sparking a boom in both Lavergne’s business community and its population.

Mayor Jason Cole: If we grow our sales tax by bringing in new businesses it makes it so that we don’t have to increase our property tax. We’re not having to go to that well and say to our residents, we need more money

The open field near these homes under construction is the next phase of new housing, hundreds of units with the promise of affordability.

Mayor Jason Cole: Our last property tax increase was 11 years ago, and since then it’s been cut twice.

As a small business owner, Dave Power knows about balancing acts.

He builds custom delivery truck bodies, those “boxes” you see on moving and delivery vehicles. Power says part of his recipe for success is having his manufacturing business based in Lavergne.

Lisa Fletcher: Would you have a bigger business headache if you were based in Nashville or Murfreesboro?

Dave Power: Oh, a hundred percent. Day one we asked for what were our restraints, and we were met with not too many, quite honestly. When we first started, we were 15, 20 people. Now we’ve got 65 or 70 people. We could not have grown seven or eight times like we have in the last 10 or 12 years without the ability to get people to help us do that.

Power says he’s been on a hiring streak and is optimistic for what lies ahead, as this city’s unique brand of freedom puts Lavergne on the map.

Lisa Fletcher: What are you most proud of here?

Mayor Jason Cole: I’m proud of how our city is growing and developing. We go to conferences. It’s not, where’s Laverne? Where is that? It’s people know where we’re at. They’re coming to us looking for locations in our community to invest in.

For Full Measure, I’m Lisa Fletcher in Lavergne, Tennessee.

Watch the video here.

The post (WATCH) Free City appeared first on Sharyl Attkisson.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to Sharyl Attkisson as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More