Tennessee’s GOP State Government is Subsidizing the Relocation of Cultural Adversary Starbucks; How Did TN Leaders Promise $30M that Hadn’t Yet Been Approved in a Public Forum?

I dislike corporate welfare in general. I passionately dislike corporate welfare for corporations fleeing anti-business blue states, because the economic freedom in the states they flee to is their financial incentive. But a red state offering corporate welfare to a woke corporation fleeing the nest it soiled absolutely enrages me.

Starbucks is relocating a significant portion of its operations from the communist carnival of Seattle to the state of Tennessee, which is paying Starbucks to bring its radical political agenda and employees to the conservative state. Thanks to Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee State Funding Board, $30 million dollars is being redistributed from Tennessee taxpayers to the left-wing coffee purveyor. Unlike some corporate welfare, this isn’t even comprised of tax incentives. It is an 8-figure cash payment from the state to a corporation whose executives have shown nothing but spitting contempt for the values of the state it is relocating to.

“TN State Funding Board approves $30 million incentive for Starbucks” [The Tennessean – 5/21/2026]

Tennessee’s State Funding Board approved the $30 million payout during a meeting on May 20. State incentives would cover an average of $15,000 per job created.

I know plenty of Tennessee small business owners who could hire more actual Tennesseans if the first $15,000 of salary was subsidized by the state. How obscene is it that a small manufacturing plant in Murfreesboro, staffed by patriotic Christians, doesn’t get a dime in assistance when it expands and hires more employees, but a corporation like Starbucks that is openly contemptuous of Tennessee’s conservative values is getting paid to colonize the state with its woke agenda?

During the announcement, Gov. Bill Lee touted the state’s “fiscally conservative approach to business.”

If taking money from taxpayers and giving it to an activist left-wing corporation is a “fiscally conservative approach to business,” what might be considered fiscally irresponsible?

How woke is Starbucks? As documented in Unherd, “Like so many companies, the coffee giant was swept up in the political maelstrom of 2020 and 2021. It pledged $100 million for businesses focused on “advancing racial equity”. It allowed employees to wear activist clothing and accessories to work, provided that the clothing supported the Black Lives Matter movement. In many Starbucks stores, June Pride Month celebrations went from discreet lapel pins to wall-covering shrines.”

So Tennessee is reimbursing Starbucks $30 million of the $100 million the company shelled out to “advance racial equity.” Some Tennessee politicians are not happy about this, including U.S. Rep. John Rose, a Republican candidate to replace (term-limited) Bill Lee as governor. He called the Starbucks incentive "corporate welfare" that is "beyond the pale." Marsha Blackburn is the overwhelming favorite to win this year’s Republican gubernatorial primary, but she has not yet commented on the Starbucks payout. I recommend that she gets on the right side of this issue quickly. If not, John Rose may gain some traction.

A ray of hope is that many Starbucks employees don’t want to leave the comfort of the asylum they call home.

“Lefty Starbucks office workers refuse to move from Seattle to new hub in deep-red Tennessee” [NY Post – 4/22/2026]

Starbucks office workers are reportedly balking at orders to relocate to the company’s new $100 million Nashville hub, with some left-leaning workers repulsed by the prospect of living and working in the capital of deep-red Tennessee.

The java giant has been struggling to persuade employees to move from Seattle — even after warning some they could lose their jobs if they refuse, Bloomberg News reported.

As I was typing this piece, I just noticed something significant that I had previously missed. Something stinks:

• Starbucks announced its new Tennessee operation in mid-April, and the employee ultimatums regarding relocation also occurred in April.

• It was several weeks later, on May 11, that the Tennessee State Funding Board issued a public notice of the upcoming May 20 meeting to vote on the $30 million handout. Public comment was limited to the day of the meeting, May 20. This was now a full month after Starbucks announced its Tennessee plans.

• If the state had not already committed the $30 million, the Funding Board could have simply voted “No” and it wouldn’t have made any difference, since Starbucks had already committed to the new Tennessee operation.

• If this was just a vote to formalize a previously agreed upon commitment of the $30 million, then how does this comport with the Tennessee Open Meeting Act. How did Governor Lee know he could promise a $30 million incentive to Starbucks if it hadn’t yet been debated in a forum open to the public?

I am not accusing the five members of the Tennessee State Funding Board of doing anything illegal. To the contrary, I am sure they have very good counsel who ensured that what they did is technically in accordance with state law. But that doesn’t make it right.

The Tennessee State Funding Board has five members entrusted with the authority and wisdom to redistribute money from taxpayers to corporate welfare recipients. Those members are:

1) Governor Bill Lee
2) Treasurer David Lillard
3) Comptroller Jason Mumpower
4) Finance & Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson
5) Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Perhaps if there is enough public revulsion from Tennessee taxpayers, these vulgar and unnecessary handouts to woke corporations will stop.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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