NASHVILLE, Tenn. — House Speaker Cameron Sexton has placed a narrow grocery break before the incoming legislature, filing House Bill 6 to lift Tennessee’s 4 percent food sales tax from milk, eggs and bread.
The measure was filed for introduction on Nov. 5 and would amend Title 67, Chapter 6 of Tennessee Code Annotated. It would apply to retail sales of those three staples when they are sold for people to eat. Lamberth is listed as a co-prime sponsor with Sexton. The filing arrived two days after Democratic candidates took six previously Republican House seats in a midterm that turned heavily on household costs.
Grocery spending accounts for about 11 percent of income for Tennesseans on average, and the statewide food levy now stands at 4 percent. Sexton’s plan would leave that rate in place on the rest of the cart while carving out the three items.
The proposal is filed for the 115th General Assembly, which covers 2027 and 2028. The legislature’s bill record shows no amendments, no committee or floor votes, and no fiscal note. A fiscal summary is listed as not available.
The act caption frames the measure as a sales-tax change touching food and food ingredients, and the official abstract lists it as introduced rather than sent to a committee. Neither the House nor the Senate has recorded a vote, so the exemption remains only a filing at this stage.
Sexton put the idea forward in the days after a national midterm that punished Republicans over living costs. The bill would not erase the 4 percent food tax across the grocery aisle; it would lift that levy only from the three named staples. How much revenue that carve-out might cost the state is unknown until a fiscal note appears.
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