Now that state legislators have concluded session for the year, many are off to the campaign trail. Here’s a quick look at some of the issues taken up during the second half of the 110th Tennessee General Assembly.
When the 110th Tennessee General Assembly concluded in April, many of the state’s legislators voted on the floors of the House of Representatives and Senate for the last time. Murfreesboro’s own Sen. Bill Ketron, along with many of his peers, announced their retirement from politics or plans to seek other offices. When the state’s senators and representatives return to the legislature next year, some familiar faces will remain, combined with many new ones. Before rushing out to manage their campaigns, state legislators faced a variety of issues, from the TNReady testing breach to renewed gun control concerns following the Parkland shooting in February.
Seven-Day Sales
In 2014, state legislators passed legislation to permit the sale of wine in grocery stores. For several years, Sen. Ketron sponsored the legislation in hopes of coming to an agreement between grocery stores and independently owned alcohol retailers. The wine in grocery stores legislation, Senate Bill 0758, eventually passed under the conditions that wine would still only be sold six days a week and that provisions beneficial to the independent alcohol retailers would be included. To support the business of the locally owned retailers, legislators agreed to a two-year transition period before grocery stores could sell wine on their shelves, during which the alcohol retailers would be permitted to sell items such as food, ice and corkscrews, which were previously prohibited.
Once grocery stores began to sell wine on their shelves in 2016, it was met with strong public praise. However, consumers became frustrated that despite the availability of wine in the grocery stores, oftentimes they were unable to purchase it. According to the Tennessee Grocers and Convenience Store Association, Sunday has become the busiest day for grocery stores. Consumers that visited their favorite grocers to shop for the week often found out during checkout that they would be unable to purchase the wine they had selected because it was Sunday. Less than two years after the original wine in grocery stores legislation was passed, Sen. Ketron and Rep. Gerald McCormick, of Chattanooga, sponsored the legislation to permit seven-day sales of wine. The seven-day sales bill passed, permitting wine to be sold during the same hours that beer is sold. Immediately following Gov. Bill Haslam’s signature on the bill, alcohol retailers were officially permitted to open their doors on Sundays in Tennessee. Although the independent retailers may now open their doors seven days a week, grocery stores will have a transition period similar to the two-year transition period for wine in grocery stores. Neither liquor stores nor grocery stores will be permitted to sell wine or liquor on Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Emissions Testing
To the delight of many citizens in Rutherford, Davidson, Hamilton, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties, Sen. Bo Watson of Hixson and Rep. Mike Carter of Hamilton sponsored House Bill 1782 this year to eliminate emissions testing burdens on citizens. Emissions testing was originally implemented as a measure to help some of Tennessee’s most populous counties achieve a “clean air status” in compliance with the Clean Air Act. Last year, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) reported that all of Tennessee’s 95 counties had achieved “clean air status,” influencing Sen. Watson and Rep. Carter to sponsor the repeal-and-replace legislation. House Bill 1782 does not outright eliminate Tennessee’s commitment to clean air, but it repeals the current emissions testing requirements in those six counties and replaces it with an alternative procedure that is “less onerous and certainly less punitive to those individuals who can least afford it, but still maintain the clean air that we all want and that we all enjoy in Tennessee,” said Sen. Watson. The replacement procedure would be overseen by TDEC, the Environment Protection Agency and local governments to preserve clean air standards across the state. Tennessee’s House of Representatives voted 92 in favor and the Senate voted 29 in favor, one opposed and two present not voting. The legislation now only requires the signature of Gov. Haslam. However, the language of the bill states that it will not take effect until federal regulators weigh in agreement that the six counties either no longer require the emissions testing or until a suitable alternative program is approved.
TNReady Accountability
Standardized testing in Tennessee, commonly known as TNReady, is designed to measure the growth of students in English language arts, math, science and social studies for grades 3 through 8, and high school students are testing in English, algebra, geometry, biology and U.S. history/geography. Various districts across the state encountered numerous technical difficulties in the administration of the TNReady this year. Prior to this year’s TNReady testing window, Tennessee education officials began the transition towards online testing, rather than paper tests. Of 600,000 students taking the test this year, approximately half were expected to use the computer platform for the state assessment.
During the first day of testing, however, students using the computer testing were largely unable to progress past the login screen, while others’ computers froze. A technical error was later discovered by the testing vendor, Questar, and testing later resumed. On the second day of the three-week testing window, students were unable to login to the testing platform or submit their answers. Department of Education Commissioner Candice McQueen reported that Questar had experienced what they believed to be a “deliberate attack” on their systems and that no student data had been compromised.
A special conference committee was convened to hear testimony from the Department of Education and Questar regarding the technical difficulties and suspected cyber-attack during this year’s test administration. House democrats Rep. Mike Stewart and Rep. John Ray Clemmons, both of Nashville, called for the commissioner’s resignation over the testing debacle. Other legislators requested a formal investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Rep. Jeremy Faison of Cosby later requested that the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, the state’s internal auditor, to review the testing system.
On the final day of legislative session, April 25, 2018, Senate Bill 0578 was passed with an amendment that states no adverse action may be taken against students, teachers, schools or local education agencies based on the 2017-2018 TNReady data, which includes registration of priority schools and assignment to the achievement school district. The previous week, legislators voted to allow local boards of education to determine what percentage, if any, up to 15 percent the scores may count towards students final grades and that no hiring, firing or salary decisions for teachers will be based on data from the TNReady tests. State officials and legislators will continue to work together to address the TNReady testing issues this year, the legislative intent and best methods of implementation going forward.
Legislature Honors Hero in Waffle House Shooting
Perhaps the least controversial item of the 2018 legislative session was Senate Joint Resolution 978, a motion which honored and recognized James Shaw Jr., the hero who ended the deadly shooting in Antioch last month. Shaw was greeted with thunderous applause on the floors of the House of Representatives and Senate. The resolution details his actions during the Antioch Waffle House shooting and deems him a hero twice over for his “courageous acts [and] nobility of character.”
Alcohol at MTSU Games
During the final days of the 2018 legislative session, the House and Senate heard Senate Bill 2111, which would permit the sale of alcohol at Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee State University sporting events. Those in favor of the legislation believe that by permitting alcohol sales, will not only bring in additional revenue, but may also help reduce binge-drinking during tailgating events. Language in the bill does not stipulate which sporting events may sell alcohol. A similar piece of legislation, House Bill 2011, which would have granted the ability to sell alcohol at MTSU, was later amended to include TSU but failed to pass in the House earlier last month. The current bill, SB 2111, awaits action from the governor.
Monument to Unborn
On the final day of the 2018 legislative session, Rep. Jerry Sexton’s House Bill 2381 passed both chambers after a week-long game of legislative tug-of-war over amendments from each chamber. Rep. Sexton of Bean Station and Sen. Steve Southerland of Morristown sponsored a bill to urge the state capitol commission to develop and implement a plan for the commissioning of the Tennessee Monument to Unborn Children. The plan for the monument is as a place of memorial for all the children of abortion and miscarriages that otherwise may not have a place of memorialization. Amendment #2 for the bill indicates that the memorial will be placed on the capitol grounds and prohibits the use of state funds for the erection of the monument.
Memphis Bicentennial Funds
During the fiscal year 2018–19 state budget discussions, a heated debate arose after Rep. Matthew Hill of Jonesborough and Rep. Steve McDaniel of Parker’s Crossroads sought an amendment to the $37.5 billion budget. The last-minute amendment stripped Memphis of $250,000 previously earmarked to match funds for the city and county’s bicentennial celebration next year. Legislators removed the funds in retaliation to the city’s decision to sell two parks to a nonprofit in order to remove statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis last year. Under the Heritage Protection Act, “no memorial regarding a historic conflict, historic entity, historic event, historic figure, or historic organization that is, or is located on, public property, may be removed, renamed, relocated, altered, rededicated, or otherwise disturbed or altered.” Any attempts to remove historic monuments, memorials or statues must be presented to the Tennessee Historical Commission. The city of Memphis chose to circumvent the Heritage Protection Act through its sale of the public parks.
Rep. Raumesh Akbari of Memphis spoke up on behalf of the city during the budget debates. “This amendment and the explanation is hateful, it is unkind, it is un-Christian-like and it is unfair,” Rep. Akbari said. “Memphis is a city in this state and I am sick of people in this House acting like it’s not. There are people across that county that had nothing to do with those monuments and nothing to do with the actions of the city council and you’re going to punish them. . . I know some of you all would be happy if we gave the doggone part of the state to Arkansas; Arkansas would gladly take us . . . I didn’t even realize how much y’all disliked Memphis ’til I got to this legislature.”
Rep. Andy Holt of Dresden likened Memphis removing the statues to the actions of ISIS in the Middle East. “Whether we agree with the individual actions of that person or not, we can’t erase history; That’s what ISIS does,” Rep. Holt said. “They erase history, they destroy history.”
University of Tennessee Board of Trustees
The UT Focus Act, a measure proposed by Gov. Haslam, sought to increase governing efficiency of the university’s Board of Trustees by reducing the number of members from 27 to 11. House Bill 2115 by Representative David Hawk of Greenville narrowly passed the House floor vote. The UT Focus Act will forcibly unseat all current members of the university’s board of trustees and replace them with 10 new members appointed by the governor and one student member.
One day before the conclusion of the legislative session, two appointees were advanced in both chambers: Amy Miles, the former CEO of Regal Entertainment Group, and Lang Wiseman, a Memphis attorney, former University of Tennessee basketball player and current State Board of Education member.
__
Next month, the Pulse will take a closer look at Rutherford County candidates for the state House of Representatives, Senate and local positions.
