NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee's state budget battle turned nasty yesterday as the state legislature reconvened to consider imposing a state income tax to pay for state spending increases for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

WorldNetDaily reported last week that mass tax protests spurred by Nashville talk radio stations prompted a virtual shutdown of the legislature when it became apparent that passage of a state income tax was imminent. Tennessee is only one of nine states without a state income tax.

State legislators fighting the tax increase say they are under intense pressure from legislative leaders pushing for the tax, but the outpouring of public support for their position has emboldened their resolve.

"The tax protests have made all of the difference," said Rep. Mae Beavers, an outspoken anti-tax legislator. "If people hadn't come out and made their feelings known, the votes would have been there last week to pass the income tax. All the horn-honking and daily protests shook a couple of their votes loose."

However, groups supporting a state income tax are striking back by trying to rally enough votes in the legislature to pass the massive tax increase. Their efforts were bolstered over the weekend by the two largest newspapers in the state, the Nashville Tennessean and the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which editorialized in favor of the income tax.

The papers derided talk radio hosts leading the protests and "uninformed horn-honkers," who the papers claimed did not represent the "silent majority" of citizens in favor of the state income tax proposal.

"Surely you will not allow Tennessee's economic policy -- and its very future -- to be dictated by radio talk show personalities whose only responsibilities are ratings and rabble-rousing," said the Tennessean in a lengthy editorial addressed to legislators published in its Sunday edition.

Not mentioned in the editorials, however, was the $39 million in sales tax breaks that Tennessee newspapers receive each year, and which news industry lobbyists have fought hard to keep in place as legislators have searched for new revenue sources to close the state budget gap.

WorldNetDaily has also learned that state employees have taken to undercover surveillance to help stifle tax protests. State employees have been vocal in support of the state income tax as a means to finance a 6 percent across the board pay raise for the coming fiscal year.

One of last week's tax protestors, Mark Cooper, found himself out of a job last Friday after state employees, who have been writing down license plate numbers of cars honking their horns in support of the tax protests, reported to his employer that he had driven his delivery truck around the state capitol.

Cooper was fired after being told by his employer, Home Depot, that his presence at the tax rally gave the company a bad reputation. Despite being out of a job, Cooper told WorldNetDaily that he doesn't regret making his voice heard.

"Even if I contributed just a little bit to help defeat this income tax, it was worth it," he said. After talk show hosts related his plight on air, Cooper said he had several local companies contact him for job interviews.

"These things always turn out for good," he said.

Despite the momentum that income tax supporters have been able to garner in recent days, one anti-tax organization, the Tennessee Institute for Public Policy, is trying to capitalize on widespread public sentiments against the income tax. The organization announced yesterday that it was launching a massive statewide radio campaign to educate taxpayers about the looming income-tax threat.

"We believe the people of Tennessee need to be made aware of exactly how close this unpopular tax really came to enactment," Michael Gilstrap, the organization's president, told WorldNetDaily.

"The major media outlets in the state have consistently given the misleading message that the state has a revenue crisis," Gilstrap said. "We're going to take to the airwaves to tell taxpayers the truth -- that our state leaders have been spending tax money like they were drunken sailors."

Meanwhile, legislators supporting the income tax proposal gathered in secret meetings late last night to formulate a strategy to push the measure through later today, a move that Beavers says violates that state's "sunshine" laws.

"These closed-door meetings, which exclude other members of the legislature and the public, are clearly illegal," she said. "How can you have public accountability when everything is being conducted in secret?"

Both the Tennessee House and Senate were scheduled to meet today to consider new budget proposals. A slimmed-down budget was approved by the House last Thursday, but the measure was voted down by the Senate on Friday, forcing legislative budget negotiators to go back to the drawing board and to place the state income tax back on the table as an option.

Gov. Don Sundquist, who campaigned in 1994 and 1998 on a platform opposing the state income tax, has vowed to veto any budget that doesn't include some form of an income tax. Sundquist says the state needs more money to help pay for improvements to the state's troubled Medicaid system, TennCare.

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