Passing a reduced, yet controversial, state budget was the highlight of this legislative session, according to two state lawmakers who represent Warren County.
The Tennessee General Assembly ended its legislative session with a $31 billion state budget that 29 lawmakers voted against.
“To balance a budget in this political climate is always welcome,” said state Rep. Judd Matheny, who finished his second year as Speaker Pro Tem in the House. “We passed a budget that’s about 2 percent smaller and we made cuts while still putting money in our rainy day fund. Some of the cuts came in agriculture and mental health and it was nothing that was too severe. Overall, it’s a pretty strong budget and if our revenue continues to exceed projections, we should be in good shape.”
One of the cuts was the decision to close Taft Youth Center in Pikeville, a detention center billed as a place for the worst of the worst juvenile offenders. They will be moved to other facilities around the state beginning this summer.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers that included state Sen. Eric Stewart tried to override Gov. Bill Haslam’s decision to close Taft Youth Center. Their budget amendment initially survived efforts to kill it on the House floor and it took furious lobbying by Haslam before the measure was defeated in both chambers.
Amid the cuts, lawmakers passed a bill to reduce the state sales tax on groceries from 5.5 percent to 5.25 percent. Measures were also passed to repeal Tennessee’s tax on gifts to relatives worth more than $10,000 and to phase-out Tennessee’s inheritance tax.
“Phasing out the inheritance tax is a good thing because it’s really like taxing you twice,” said state Rep. Charles Curtiss. “You pay taxes to build it, then you pay property taxes on it the whole time you own it. Then we tax you again when you give it to a family member.”
Both Curtiss and Matheny applauded efforts to bolster the prescription drug database to make it more of a real-time network. The database monitors doctors, pharmacies and customers.
“I think it will be a good tool to prevent people from doctor shopping, to see if pharmacists are selling more than what’s been prescribed, and to make sure our doctors are prescribing properly,” said Curtiss.
Added Matheny, “It’s an non-intrusive way to see who is getting what.”
Other bills taking effect include:
• A saggy pants bill to prohibit students from wearing saggy pants or other indecent clothing on school grounds.
• A drug bill that makes it a felony to sell synthetic drugs known as bath salts.
• A prayer bill that allows school personnel to participate in student-initiated religious activities.
• A sales tax bill that requires Amazon.com to begin collecting Tennessee sales taxes in 2014.
• A bill that creates a suspicion-based drug testing program for welfare recipients.
“We want to tighten the process of fraud and abuse in the system,” said Matheny of drug testing for welfare. “We want to make sure children aren’t penalized for someone else’s actions, but we also want to make sure money received goes to lawful purposes.”
Bills that failed and won’t take effect include:
• Lifting the cap on average class sizes at public schools.
• Banning teachers from talking about gay issues to elementary and middle school students.
• Guaranteeing employees the right to store firearms in vehicles parked at work.
• Encouraging horse slaughter facilities to locate in Tennessee.
• Requiring drug tests for state lawmakers.