The Tennessee department of revenue, center, is in this Nashville office tower at 500 Deaderick St. (Photo Google)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE — David Tulis (423) 316-2680 davidtuliseditor@gmail.com
Brad Buchanan has been working for the Tennessee revenue department for nearly a year, having 18 years behind him as an attorney in state government. (Photo Brad Buchanan)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 – A department of revenue judge says poor people are not allowed to use the roads in Tennessee because they cannot afford to make good when they have an accident.
Brad Buchanan, head administrative judge in the Tennessee department of revenue, says the general assembly secured the ban since 2002 in the Tennessee financial responsibility law of 1977, using the section 139 amendment to justify revoking tags of poor people because they are not customers of the insurance industry.
“If someone is unable to meet the financial burden of proving financial responsibility,” Buchanan says, “their ability to pay for damages they may cause in the operation of their vehicle is necessarily also in question. It is the intent of the General Assembly in enacting the TFRL to bar such motorists from operating on the highways of this state.”
The department uses a surveillance tower called EIVS, or electronic insurance verification system, that scans insurance company customer lists and trawls for registration tag owners who don’t appear as customers. A randomly selected group is targeted with a four-step revocation notice sequence generating 12,000 letters a week.
EIVS went into effect Jan. 1, 2017, and contributes to 40,800 criminal convictions a year on average among 1 million registered motor vehicle owners who are insurance non-customers.
Buchanan’s statement is in a 62-page order revoking the tag of a 300,000-mile 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan owned by a petitioner who says because of joblessness and poverty he let his insurance lapse. Revenue revoked the tag of David Tulis of Soddy-Daisy in July 2023
The Buchanan order says a poor person has options. They can pay the commissioner of revenue, David Gerregano, $65,000 as a “proof of financial responsibility” to keep a tag. He can also try to buy a corporate surety bond for their use of an automobile. He may have no choice but to wait for the blue lights to flash in his rear-view mirror and face criminal prosecution. The department is not responsible for criminal cases of with “driving on suspended,” Buchanan says. State policy, he indicates, is for the poor to stay home.
Buchanan says there is no such thing as private use of an automobile, and that any use of an automobile apart from privilege taxable activity is illegal.
The order is part of an 18 month case handled by Eagle Radio investigative radio reporter Tulis seeking to overthrow what he calls the “Eye of Sauron” program.
David runs a personal nonprofit fighting and mercy ministry. He thanks you for checks sent directly to c/o 10520 Brickhill Lane, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. Also at GiveSendGo.
