NASHVILLE – A Senate panel this afternoon sent a controversial municipal de-annexation bill for summer study over the objections of its main sponsor, Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Bo Watson, R-Hixson.
State and Local Government Committee members voted 5-3 in favor of the motion, offered up by Republican Caucus Chairman Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro.
The vote comes following fierce debate on Tuesday and the previous week over the measure, which would have allowed residents of areas annexed by Tennessee towns and cities from 1998 forward to petition for referendums in which a majority could vote to secede from a municipality.
Memphis officials charged the bill would result in up to 110,000 residents leaving the city and prove ruinous to Memphis’ already rocky finances.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke opposed it as well although the impact would have been far less than on Memphis.
In arguing against Ketron’s motion, Watson said “no one respects the legislative process any more than I do and that has certainly been demonstrated” on his bill, which has been repeatedly amended.
But Watson said “this committee has invested, I would argue, more time on this legislation than any study committee. The legislation that is before this committee today is a creation of this committee.”
He also said amendments added to the bill, even those he opposed, are a “creation of this committee” and had been unanimously or nearly unanimously adopted. He said he would defend even the amendments he opposed on the floor and against the House version.
Watson pointed out that when the House-passed bill came to the Senate, it was re-referred to State and Local Government Chairman Ken Yager’s committee with Yager, R-Kingston, and Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, saying it would come back.
Ketron, however, said the bill’s impact is so potentially large that lawmakers need to exercise great caution.
Ketron said there are issues in Rutherford County, which he represents, too. And he voiced concerns about pending annexation lawsuits.
The Murfreesboro lawmaker also recalled how it took him seven years to pass a bill allowing sales of wine in grocery stories. It was an important bill, Ketron said, but doesn’t have nearly the impact of de-annexation.
Senators must “make sure that we get this right,” Ketron said.
The bill would have required departing residents to continue paying their share of property taxes for infrastructure improvements made while they resided in a municipality.