NASHVILLE - Tennessee GOP legislative leaders plan to bring the state's proposed $52 billion fiscal 2023 budget up for floor votes Thursday despite several lingering disagreements among themselves and with Republican Gov. Bill Lee over several major provisions in the annual spending plan.
Those include a controversial "truth in sentencing" measure pressed by House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Senate Speaker Randy McNally. It would require felons convicted of violent offenses in 14 categories to serve 100% of the sentences handed out by judges.
It would undo some provisions that Lee, who has championed sentencing reform, had previously pushed through the legislature. Sexton and House Republicans earlier this week sent the governor a message at one point, zeroing out $150 million Lee had included for his proposed Violent Crime Intervention Fund.
It's now back, albeit at $100 million, a peace offering of sorts.
And the House also came back to restore some deleted funding for two prisoner advocacy groups Lee has supported and worked with prior to his entering politics. One of them is Nashville-based Men of Valor, which works with men in prison and helps them adjust to the outside world when released. Another was a Tim Tebow-backed anti-trafficking initiative.
Most of the funding was restored in budget versions on Wednesday.
"We will continue to stand with law enforcement, judges, district attorneys and victims," Sexton said in a statement Wednesday as he continued to press his "truth in sentencing" provision. "As this bill nears a vote in the House, hopefully, we can reach an agreement with Gov. Lee on this issue."
"Premature to offer comments on that," texted Lee communications director Laine Arnold in response to a question about where the governor stands on the spending plan.
There are other differences between the two chambers, a major one being the proposed $500 million bond issue Lee has recommended to help Tennessee Titans team owners and Nashville finance a new enclosed stadium that could cost upwards of $2.2 billion.
House Finance Committee members approved it although a number of Republicans opposed the measure in committee.
Among those supporting was House Finance Committee Chairwoman Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain.
"I'm convinced from the numbers that I've seen that the stadium will pay for itself and that it will be a positive impact on Tennessee's budget, the state budget," she told the panel. "If you bring dollars into the state, we all benefit now from the economic engine that is Nashville and from the other economic engines across the state, the urban areas."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bo Watson, R-Hixson, and colleagues later voted to cut the bond issue.
That will be among the issues to be resolved on Thursday.
"The budget is a give-and-take-process," Watson said in an interview after his panel adjourned. "The governor proposes and once it's over here, we come to deal with it. I think over my time here, the legislature has become more and more sophisticated in looking at the budget and weighing in on the budget and, perhaps, even pushing back."
The budget also includes $125 million to increase state funding for teacher salaries, $200 million for Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology infrastructure and $365 million for a new law enforcement training academy.
There's a monthlong tax holiday in August for food sold in grocery stores: Price tag about $80 million. And there are other tax cuts as well, including a $9 million provision ending the professional privilege tax on physicians.
"It's the complete elimination of the professional privilege tax on physicians," Watson said.
Watson said there's also a $50 million sales tax reduction on broadband supplies, which, because the state is holding local governments harmless, totals $68 million.
"It's our understanding this will accelerate the deployment of broadband particularly in the rural communities," he said.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.