Tennessee Tax Revolt, Inc.

Tennessee Tax Revolt, Inc.

Abbreviation	TTR
Motto	Here to keep you informed!
Formation	2001
Type	Public Benefit Corporation
Location	Nashville, Tennessee
President	Rick Durham
Founder and Spokesman	Ben Cunningham
Website	www.tntaxrevolt.com

Tennessee Tax Revolt, Inc. (TTR) is an American political advocacy group that is active in the state of Tennessee. Its primary purpose is to monitor and influence issues of taxation but it also expresses opinions on issues such as government transparency and net neutrality. In 2005 an Associated Press story referred to the organization as a "leading anti-tax group".

The organization describes itself as a grassroots effort and a non-partisan group and as a "support group for the tax groups around the state." It was incorporated as a public benefit corporation of Tennessee on October 22, 2001. Donation pages on its site note that donations to TTR are not tax-deductible.

In nearly all appearances in the media and speaking engagements, TTR is represented by its spokesman Nashville real estate investor Ben Cunningham, who is also listed as a founder of the organization. Cunningham was also the lead founder of the Nashville Tea Party in 2011 saying, "There are also some projects that just don’t naturally fit into the Tennessee Tax Revolt sphere that we’re going to be involved with." Many letters to members of Congress and other national or international bodies are signed by the organization's president Rick Durham.

In his book Covenant of Liberty: The Ideological Origins of the Tea Party Movement conservative activist and author Michael Patrick Leahy describes an event that he calls the Tennessee Tax Revolt which he credits as the genesis of the organization of the same name. This was a three-year popular campaign to oppose the institution of a state income tax in Tennessee, a cause championed by Republican Governor Don Sundquist.

Ben Cunningham and state radio personalities Phil Valentine, Steve Gill, Darrell Ankarlo, and Dave Ramsey, aided by Republican lawmakers such as Marsha Blackburn, spearheaded an effort that involved dissemination of information over the air waves, email lists, and a web site, emails and telephone calls to state legislators, postal mailing of tea bags to officials, street protests and driving past the State Capitol building whilst honking their automobile horns, and a tactic that a Los Angeles Times reporter referred to as "steering protesters to lawmakers' homes." According to Mr. Cunningham, in addition to the honking of automobile horns among the activists at the State Capitol there was a competition to produce the loudest noise which was achieved in 2002 with a dismounted train whistle powered by a portable air compressor, requiring other protesters to cover their ears when it was sounded once or twice per day.