TRANSCRIPT OF EXCERPT FROM RON RAMSEY PRESS CONFERENCE DEC. 15, 2011 Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, speaking to reporters in his office on Dec. 15, 2011, in advance of the 2012 legislative session: Ramsey said he expected the upcoming legislative session to raise the exemption levels on the Hall Income Tax, at least for people 65 and over, so more retirees would be exempted. Ramsey was asked why not focus on reducing the sales tax on food, since Tennessee is one of only 11 states that still tax grocery food. Ramsey: ?Because we don?t have a state income tax in the State of Tennessee and as long as I?m in state government we won?t have a state income tax in Tennessee. But you have to have a reliable source of income to provide the basic services and I think that?s about what we do in Tennessee, provide the basic services. And so the sales tax on food is that reliable source. ?And I?m going to tell you what. About three years ago, four years ago, we cut half a cent off the sales tax on food. I?ll bet you that if you poll the citizenry, there isn?t 5 percent that can tell you that when you walk into a grocery store and you buy some pork and beans, your tax is 5.5 percent from the state and if you reach right beside it and get a box of toilet paper, it?s 7 percent. So I think it?s more psychological than it is anything else. We?re never going to do away with it completely so I don?t think that lowering it really does help that much and I think we could concentrate more on the taxes that we can actually eliminate.? Reporter: But weren?t you a big proponent of cutting it back a few year ago? Ramsey: ?Actually I wasn?t a big proponent to be perfectly honest. At that time, I tried to convince my caucus that the estate tax was the way to go. And we had a good discussion within our caucus on what we needed to go and I lost. And so I was always one at that time who thought we could take that same amount of money -- $45 million I think it was at that time ? and use it for the estate tax as opposed to the sales tax on food and maybe I just didn?t fight hard enough at that time. So no, I was not a proponent at that time.?