JOHNSON REELECTED
CHAMBER CEO SCHULZ TO RETIRE
NOVEMBER 21, 2024 | VOLUME 36 | NUMBER 46
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Bill Freeman dies at 73
Real estate company founder, ‘The News’ owner died at his home in Green Hills WILLIAM WILLIAMS, D. PATRICK RODGERS
Tennessee State Capitol
PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO
State returns $938 million to businesses for franchise tax change
Bill Freeman — the co-founder of Nashville-based real estate company Freeman Webb, a Democratic Party powerbroker, a former mayoral candidate and the owner of The News parent company FW Publishing — has died by suicide at his Forest Hills home. According to his son Bob Freeman, Freeman died Sunday night. He was 73. Freeman — a longtime supporter of local journalism and a candidate for mayor in 2015 — teamed with friend and business partner Jimmy Webb to purchase the Nashville Scene and sister publications the Nashville Post and Nfocus in 2018 via FW Publishing. Webb died in 2019. Freeman attended the Peabody Demonstration School (now the University School of Nashville) and the >> PAGE 3
Just 39 percent of eligible businesses have filed refunds due to legislature’s removal of property tax provision NICOLLE S. PRAINO The state has refunded $938 million to almost 47,000 businesses based upon a change to the franchise tax law passed during the 113th General Assembly. The Tennessee Department of Revenue provided an update on the franchise tax property measure refunds during the department’s budget hearing with Gov. Bill Lee Tuesday. The 2024 fiscal year budget had provided
$1.6 billion for about 120,000 taxpayers to receive refunds due to the legislature’s change to its tax on businesses, a modification that removed the provision for the tax based on the amount of property a business owned. That means almost 59 percent of the money in the budget for the refunds has been given to approximately 39 percent of businesses that are eligible. “We’ve approached this project with three
main goals,” David Gerregano, commissioner of the Department of Revenue, said during the hearing. He stressed accuracy, efficiency and customer service. “To be transparent, we proactively contacted each taxpayer our records indicate was eligible for a refund to let them know directly from us,” he said. When asked by Lee about unprocessed claims, Gerregano responded by >> PAGE 2
Bill Freeman
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