Tennessee: Tight money means fewer spending bills

NASHVILLE — In the view of Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, one thing should be very clear when lawmakers reconvene today.

“I think people get it that any legislation that costs money won’t pass this year,” said Lt. Gov. Ramsey, the Senate speaker.

Any number of issues including efforts by district attorneys general and police chiefs to boost prison penalties for criminals who use guns will receive the same treatment, Lt. Gov. Ramsey said.

Tennessee currently faces the need to trim up to $900 million in spending from the yet-to-be presented 2009-10 budget as a result of its recession-battered revenues.

Gov. Phil Bredesen and other state officials are hopeful the proposed federal stimulus will offset the deep cuts. The U.S. House of Representatives passed an $819 billion version with $3.8 billion to Tennessee over a two-year period. The U.S. Senate plan, which will face a test vote today, slashes the state-targeted funds.

Besides dealing with the state’s revenue shortfalls, lawmakers are also expected to confront other issues such as competitive elections for appellate judges.

Appellate judges, including the Tennessee Supreme Court, are currently appointed by the governor based on recommendations made by the state’s Judicial Selection Commission. Commissioners are appointed by House and Senate speakers based largely on recommendations of lawyer groups. Voters decide whether to retain the judge.

Sens. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, and Dewayne Bunch, R-Cleveland, believe the current selection process violates the state constitution.

“The judges are to be elected by the qualified voters of the state,” said Sen. Bunch, an attorney, who termed the current method as “intellectually elitist.”

The two senators helped the Senate Government Operations Committee block extension of the Judicial Selection Commission and the Judicial Evaluation Commission, which grades sitting judges who face retention votes.

The panels will go out of existence July 1 unless action is taken. The Tennessee Bar Association is expected to push the extension. Lt. Gov. Ramsey is inclined to agree with those who question the constitutionality of the retention system.

Other issues lawmakers will consider include:

n Unemployment insurance — Recession-induced unemployment has put a heavy drain on the state’s jobless insurance fund, which has fallen by a third to $381 million since the start of 2008. It won’t be able to pay benefits beginning in 2010 with Tennessee unemployment expected to go as high as 10 percent.

The Bredesen administration and employers face raising unemployment tax rates on businesses or hiking the wage base on which taxes are applied.

n Abortion — Newly elected House Speaker Kent Williams, R-Elizabethton, has reshuffled a House subcommittee that has traditionally blocked a proposed constitutional amendment that would make the Tennessee Constitution silent on the issue of abortion.

If the resolution passes this General Assembly by a majority and the next General Assembly by two-thirds margins, it would go on the 2014 ballot. If passed by voters, it would enable the General Assembly to pass new abortion restrictions if the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturns or substantially changes Roe v. Wade.

n Elected superintendents — Sen. Ken Yager, R-Harriman, has legislation that would let county and city commissions decide whether they wish to have elected school superintendents.

“This is consistent with my philosophy of local control,” Sen. Yager said of the bill, which is opposed by the Tennessee School Board Association.