NASHVILLE – Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga, says she’s feeling more optimistic about the prospects of her legislation requiring school-bus seat belts when it goes before the House Education Planning and Administration Committee on Wednesday.
“I feel comfortable about the committee,” Favors said Tuesday of her bill, which was delayed in the panel after most of the time was consumed by debates on two un-related measures. “I think we will have the vote, but you never know.”
A number of Chattanoogans had trekked to the state Capitol in Nashville yet again on the legislation which Favors and Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, introduced following the Nov. 21 crash of a Hamilton County school bus in Brainerd, killing six Woodmore Elementary School students and injuring others.
Favors also said that after speaking with some members of Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration on Monday, the officials tell her “they are remaining neutral” on the bill.
“Really, I felt encouraged after I talked with them,” said Favors, whose original bill was “flagged” by the administration over its high costs over a six-year period.
Since then the Chattanooga lawmaker has worked to slash cost projections outlined by legislative Fiscal Review Committee staff in their fiscal note.
For starters, Favors dropped original language from the bill that required all Tennessee public and private school buses be equipped with safety-restraint systems approved by the National Transportation Safety Board by July 1, 2023.
It now simply says that any school bus ordered or purchased after July 1, 2019, come with the NTSB recommended restraint systems. That cut the projected cost by 80 percent, Favors said.
If approved Wednesday by the House education panel, the bill would then go to the House Budget Subcommittee before it could go to the full Finance Committee and then to the Calendar & Rules Committee, the last stopping place before bills hit the House floor.
Favors noted the Budget Subcommittee full Finance Committee’s role is to “scrutinize the budget and make sure that it’s feasible. But I’m hoping they will look at what we’ve been able to accomplish with Fiscal Review and reducing the fiscal note by 80 percent. I’m hoping that will be considered.”
Gardenhire’s companion bill is in the Senate Finance Committee.
The six Woodmore children were killed in November on Talley Road in Brainerd when their bus, driven by Johnthony Walker, 24, veered out of control and overturned. Walker has been indicted on six counts of vehicular homicide and reckless driving.
Walker was working for Durham School Services under a contract with Hamilton County Schools.
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