Every Tennessee student would have to get gun safety training at school under new Republican legislation, but some Democrats think the law accepts gun violence at school as a “new normal.”
The Tennessee Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) Act already mandates school safety planning strategies. It covers fire emergencies, severe weather events, prohibits weapons, and more. The law also mandates school districts to have procedures in place to respond to the report of a firearm on campus.
A new bill would add gun safety curriculum to the SAVE Act and parents could not opt their child out of the training.
With the new law, three state agencies — the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, the Tennessee Department of Education, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency — would determine the most appropriate age to begin gun training for kids in school. But classes could start as early as pre-K and continue all the way through high school. Local school districts would then decide how to implement gun safety instruction into their students’ schedules.
The bill would teach students about the safe storage of guns, school safety relating to guns, how to avoid injury if the student finds a gun, to never touch a found gun, and to immediately notify an adult of the location of a found gun. This instruction should be be “viewpoint neutral on political topics, such as gun rights, gun violence, and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The training should also not include the use or presence of live ammunition, live fire, or live guns.
School districts would decide who teaches the gun safety courses. Those courses “are certainly not about how to handle a firearm or proper techniques or anything like that,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chris Todd (R-Madison County). “This is literally going to be more on the lines of ‘if you see a gun, [tell] an adult.’”
Todd said he sees gun training at school as just an extension of safety training already happening at schools within the SAVE. Act. He said members of gun clubs across the state, including the Alpha Gun Team of Memphis, stand behind the bill, too.
”We see this proposed legislation as a critical step in averting firearm related accidents while fostering greater awareness and responsibility among gun owners,” Todd said in a Tuesday hearing.
Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), a retired school teacher, said schools have long drilled students to react to acts of nature, like fires and tornadoes. Gun have been around for a ling time, too, she said.
“But we haven’t had our classes shot up,” she said. “This isn’t something we should just accept as the new normal. We can stop this. And this [bill] isn’t going to do it.”
Johnson said mandating students to take the gun safety course could trigger some students who had a history of gun violence in their family and would leave them at school alone without a parent to ensure they are okay.
Todd said students cannot now opt out of fire safety training, even if they’ve been in a fire or lost their home in a fire. Students still need to learn fire safety, he said.
“I just think it’s part of life that we need to learn those skills,” Todd said.
Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) argued for an opt-out from the program, saying some parents may not want their children “talking [about], touching, or introduced to guns at all,” especially for some who want to opt out for “religious reasons.”
“We should be able to have someone to opt out of this if they don’t choose this as appropriate for their child,” Dixie said. “I thought we believed in parents’ choice.”
Rep. Mark Cochran (R-Englewood) countered, saying that the “chances of a minor seeing a gun at some point is … that’s a reality of life, as [Todd] mentioned earlier.”
Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) told committee members that many teachers are “former veterans who are trained hunters who go through hunter safety training” and could easily teach the courses. He said allowing students to opt out of other safety training courses “is ridiculous” and that a parent’s objection to gun training “is entirely misplaced.”
“It would be the equivalent, for example, of us saying to an Amish parent, because they prefer to ride in a horse and buggy, that their children shouldn’t be trained on how to cross the street with automobile traffic,” Ragan said. “Safety is safety. Opting out of it is ridiculous.”
A ticketing system that restricts public access to the Tennessee House of Representatives is allowable under the state’s constitution, according to a legal opinion from Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
In practice, the ticketing system has meant that Tennessee’s super-majority GOP House can control its audience while conducting public business. GOP lawmakers get 75 tickets and Democrats 24, all for the west balcony overlooking the House floor. The east side of the gallery remains open to the media and public.
Sexton has defended the policy against criticism, saying representatives want to ensure visitors they know are arriving have seats, even if they are a few minutes late. He said lawmakers could also share tickets and noted that Congress also has a ticketing system.
Establishing a ticketing system falls within the authority of the General Assembly to regulate and manage access to the Capitol building, the legal opinion, issued last week, said.
According to the opinion, “the Tennessee Constitution contemplates that sessions during which the General Assembly conducts its business will be open to the public, but it does not guarantee the public a right of access to legislative sessions,” it said.
The Tennessee Constitutions says that “doors of each House and of committees of the whole shall be kept open, unless when the business shall be such as ought to be kept secret.”
The ticketing system, the opinion said, “would not run afoul of the “open door” provision of (the Tennessee Constitution) because it would not close the doors to the public; it would merely manage public access to the limited space that is available.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Do you want to bring your untrained support animal into restaurants?
Do you want a week in July to be a time of prayer and fasting in in Tennessee and seeks God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee?
Well, the Tennessee General Assembly has some good news and some bad news for you.
Hundreds of bills are filed each legislative session. Not all of them rise to the height of debate. Nor do all of them pertain to all Tennesseans. Remember when the ladder became the state tool? Oh, and hot slaw is on the way to becoming a state food.
Here are some bills now under consideration in Nashville are bold, specific, and sometimes just plain odd.
Speaking of specific, this bill allows adults to carry pepper spray, tasers, and “similar devices” (whatever those are) on college campuses. Oh, and those colleges can’t make rules against this, either.
“…it is not a criminal offense for an adult person to carry or possess pepper spray, a taser, or another similar device for purposes of self-defense when on property owned, operated, or in use by any college or university board of trustees, regents, or directors for the administration of any public or private educational institution…”
Protestors here like to close the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. If this bill is passed, the penalty goes up to a Class D felony. And anyone “who suffers loss or injury” from the road obstruction can sue those who do it.
This one’s already passed the full House (not the show).
It “prohibits emotional support animals that are not trained, or being trained, to perform tasks or work for a person with a disability from indoor areas of food service establishments.”
Just….here: ”Designates the period of July 1, 2024, through July 31, 2024, as a time of prayer and fasting in Tennessee and seeks God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee.”
The bill, ”authorizes a member of a homeowners’ association for a neighborhood in Williamson County with at least 300 single family residential homes and two or more gates restricting ingress and egress to the neighborhood to request a report from the board of directors for the homeowners’ association regarding criminal activity in the gated subdivision.”
Maybe you thought I was kidding about the beer thing, too? Nope.
This bill “prohibits a beer permittee from selling at retail refrigerated or cold beer.”
It is now referred to a committee in the Senate. However, the bill lost several sponsors in the House last week, not a great signal for its passage. Phew.
New federal Medicaid dollars may help Tennessee ease gun violence with a “proactive approach” sponsored by two state Democrats who say inaction by Republicans has been “shameful” and that the party is “scared of the [National Rifle Association].”
State Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) and Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) filed legislation that could flow Medicaid dollars here for community violence intervention programs proposed by Preisdent Joe Biden in 2021.
So far, seven states have received the funds, which require a match by states. The money is used to bolster existing programs that hope to stop gun violence well before someone picks up a firearm.
“For example, violence interruption programs deploy trusted messengers to work directly with individuals most likely to commit gun violence, intervene in conflicts, and connect people to social and economic services to reduce the likelihood of gun violence as an answer,” reads a statement from the White House. “Hospital-based violence interventions engage people who have been shot while they are still in the hospital, connecting them to services to decrease the likelihood that they commit gun violence or are victimized in the future. Programs like these have reduced homicides by as much as 60 percent in areas where they are implemented.”
The bill from Lamar and Jones would authorize Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to request the federal funding and the state matching funds. Then, TennCare officials would be responsible for identifying existing programs or creating new ones to use the funds.
“This legislation represents an opportunity for us to try a more holistic approach to reducing gun violence — an approach that recognizes the effect issues, such as poverty, education and mental health, have on crime,” Jones said. “It is a vital step in expanding the funding and resources necessary to protect our communities.”
Both Lamar and Jones ripped Republicans for inaction on gun violence in Tennessee, pointing to few laws of substance passed on the issue in the wake of the Covenant School shooting last year.
Since Republicans ended the legislative session last April, there have been 1,096 shootings — more than three per day — in Tennessee said Lamar, quoting facts from Tennessee Under the Gun, a data project from the Tennessee Senate Democrats. Since then, there have been 11 mass shootings where four or more people were shot, not including the shooter. Since the last sessions ended, 417 adults and 47 children were killed by gun violence in Tennessee.
So far this year, there have been 114 shootings in Tennessee and one mass shooting, that of Courdarion Craft who killed one person and injured two others in a weekend crime spree here this past weekend.
However, Lamar said data hasn’t changed the minds of Republicans who, ultimately, have the power to change gun violence in Tennessee.
“There is nothing anybody can say to me that [can prove] Republicans have done what they’re supposed to do for the good of people,” Lamar said. “They are too scared of the NRA and gun lobbyists than they are of babies dying.”
“There is not another piece of data we can produce for them to change their minds. They actually know what the problem is. They’re making a conscious and deliberate decision not to do anything.”
Meanwhile, state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) has introduced several bills to tamp gun violence in Tennessee. One bill would ban the manufacture of semi-automatic rifles in Tennessee. He also would ban the manufacture, transfer, or sale of magazine clips that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. He also wants to require anyone who has lost a gun to report the loss to state officials within 24 hours.
“If you rape a child in the state of Tennessee, you will die. Period.”
This is the hope of state House Majority Leader Rep. William Lamberth (R-Cottontown). If his legislation passes, adults over the age of 18 could face the death penalty if they rape a child under the age of 12, he told the House Criminal Justice Committee last week. He described his legislation before the Tennessee General Assembly as “the gravest type of bill we would possibly consider.”
“If [the legislation] saves even one child from going through that, because the fear of [the death penalty] gets into the head of some monster out there — that’s even thinking about this — then it’s worth saving that child,” Lamberth said. “I will tell you life in prison for these evil people is simply too good. They should not be able to live out their days with the rest of us, including their victim — paying for their food, and housing, and care, and medical as they age and everything else. If you rape a child, you should die.”
The bill moved quickly through the House committee system. It is now placed behind the budget for consideration by the full House. The Senate bill was only introduced in mid-January and awaits a review by the Senate Judiciary Committee, its first hearing by lawmakers in that house. Its sponsor there is Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), Senate Majority Leader.
So far, the only votes cast against the bill are from Democratic House members Rep. Ronnie Glynn (D-Clarksville), Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis), Rep. Joe Towns Jr. (D-Memphis), and Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville).
Johnson said the penalty of child rape in Tennessee is life in prison, a sentence that must be served fully. She argued this already holds the guilty accountable. She worried a death penalty sentence would have a “chilling effect” on victims reporting the crime.
“If a child was raped by an uncle, say,” Johnson said. “The uncle’s going to say, ‘Don’t tell because I’ll be killed, I’ll get the death penalty.’ Then, the mother of the child, who is the sister of the [alleged perpetrator], maybe won’t want to testify against her brother, if it means the death penalty.
“If the victims fear, it will create a chilling effect on reporting.”
Johnson also argued the move could further “re-victimize the victim.”
“Not only is [the child in the scenario] a victim, she will be victimized every day by the state that’s going to require her to carry that pregnancy [to term]. Then, they’re going to require her to show up for appeal after appeal.”
“It’s a heinous crime and I hate to think about it, but life in prison also takes care of the situation.”
Lamberth read an email from a young, female victim, asking committee members to support the legislation. It spoke the high hurdles for criminal charges and soft sentences for defendants accused of child rape. It described their sexual desires like “they were at an all-you-could-eat buffet with the appetite of a bear coming out of hibernation and only having access to a single plate.”
“The ones that actually get convicted should face real consequences,” the letter read. “Perhaps if that happened, there would be less people in our community forever changed.”
If the legislation passes, Lamberth vowed to fight for its implementation in court. A 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said the death penalty is not proportional punishment for the crime of child rape. Lamberth countered this, however, noting that the court’s ruling came because “not enough states had this type of penalty on the books.”
“We’re seen other decisions by the Supreme Court overturned,” Lamberth said. “I believe this particular makeup of the court, it leans more towards state’s rights.”
Death penalty executions remain on hold in Tennessee, after a scathing report in December 2022 found numerous problems with the state’s execution protocols.
Two death penalty bills failed in the legislature last year. One would have added firing squads to the state’s options for executions. Another would have brought more transparency to the execution process.
One death penalty bill passed last year. It gave the Attorney General control over post-conviction proceedings in capital cases, rather than the local District Attorneys. That bill was ruled unconstitutional in July by Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan.
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.
A Tennessee lawmaker said he plans to introduce legislation giving Gov. Bill Lee’s administration the power to appoint up to six new members to the board of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
Rep. Mark White of Memphis cited prolonged frustration with the board’s locally elected leadership when explaining his plans to Chalkbeat on Tuesday.
The nine members currently on the board of the state’s largest school district would remain in office under the proposal.
And the additional members would be appointed later this year based on recommendations from local officials and stakeholders, said White, a Republican who represents parts of East Memphis and the suburb of Germantown.
“I’m very concerned about the district’s direction, and I just can’t sit back any longer. I think we’re at a critical juncture,” said White, who chairs a powerful education committee in the House.
In a statement Tuesday, board Chair Althea Greene said White’s proposal is unnecessary.
“We may have had some challenges, but more interference from the General Assembly is not warranted at this time,” she said. “We have to stop experimenting with our children.”
White said he is unhappy with the board’s handling of the superintendent search for a district where strong, stable, and timely leadership is especially critical. Most MSCS students are considered economically disadvantaged and continue to significantly trail state benchmarks in reading and math following devastating pandemic-related academic declines.
“I’m concerned about the three people they’ve whittled it down to, and I’m just not impressed,” said White, who did not specify the candidates’ shortcomings.
There are “highly qualified people in Memphis who know how to improve the system,” White added.
His criticisms echo recent frustrations from some local educators and community members at the prospect of an out-of-state candidate leading Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Some have called for a local candidate or for the board to permanently hire interim Superintendent Toni Williams, the district’s former finance chief.
Board member Michelle McKissack expressed surprise about White’s plan and his comments about the finalists. She praised their qualifications.
“This has been an extraordinarily robust search, and we have listened to all members of the community every way we know how to,” McKissack said.
Adding board members — particularly appointed candidates who don’t have constituents to answer to — would only complicate board governance, she said.
“It’s not going to make board operations any easier when you have a 15-person board,” McKissack said, pointing to the challenges of the previous 23-member body that oversaw the historic merger of the city and county school districts and created Memphis-Shelby County Schools a decade ago.
She added: “They think they have a problem now? Well then get ready.”
White and Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis Republican, expect to file their legislation this month and have been working with the state attorney general’s office “to get the language right,” White said.
The legislation could affect upcoming nonpartisan school board elections in which five seats are up for grabs. Greene is the only incumbent to have pulled a petition for the August election since the filing opened on Monday, according to Shelby County Election Commission officials.
White drew a distinction between his proposal and a 12-year-old state initiative to take over low-performing schools, mostly in Memphis, to place them with charter school operators under the oversight of the Tennessee Achievement School District.
“This is not about taking over schools. It’s about putting in place stronger governance over the elected bodies for low-performing districts,” he said.
The Memphis school board is responsible for hiring the superintendent, but also charting the direction for the district, often by prioritizing how to use the $1.2 billion it receives each year, plus the additional hundreds of millions in one-time federal funds. Board members also play a role in addressing issues of their community and educator constituents.
The board’s second search last fall generated 22 applicants, according to the search firm the board hired to oversee the process. Just one local candidate, Angela Whitelaw, the district’s top academics chief, was among the five finalists. Following the guidance of their own evaluations and the community’s input, the board selected three finalists:
It’s not the first time that White has introduced bills to give the state the power to intercede in local matters.
He successfully sponsored legislation in 2022 that forced the Memphis district to cede four schools to several nearby suburban districts, including in Germantown, which serves mostly white and affluent students. The move reignited persistent criticisms that the decade-long tug-of-war over the valuable school properties was essentially about race and class. Ultimately, Shelby County commissioners increased taxes, in part to help pay for a new high school for the urban district’s mostly Black students from low-income families.
White also asked the Tennessee attorney general to weigh in last year about potential conflicts of interest for Keith Williams, the executive director of a local teacher union in Memphis who was elected to the board in 2022.
Memphians have long been wary of Tennessee lawmakers who have repeatedly singled out Memphis on education matters. For instance, a controversial 2019 law created a private school voucher program that only applied to Memphis and Nashville, even though local officials overwhelmingly opposed it.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach her at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Credit: vepar5 | Adobe Stock and State of Tennessee
Credit: vepar5 | Adobe Stock and State of Tennessee
Our cover story this week looks at issues stoking the embers of class struggles in Tennessee.
School vouchers, flagging revenues, and even that brief “tax holiday” on groceries have some wondering for whom does the state’s Republican-dominated government work?
State revenues will flatten this year, according to experts, after years of increases. This is thanks, in large part, to big tax breaks the legislature approved for business owners last year.
This “business-friendly” policy framework, which cuts taxes for the business class in hopes of prosperity for everyone, found harsh critics in economists with the national Economic Policy Institute.
Another harsh critic of Tennessee’s version is Memphis state Sen. London Lamar. Here’s what she told us in a recent interview. — Toby Sells
(This interview has been edited for clarity.)
Memphis Flyer:Does Tennessee economic policy work for most folks in Tennessee?
Sen. London Lamar: Our tax policy is incentivizing businesses for keeping people poor.
I say that because when you think about since 2011 and when the Republicans got in office, the main tax reform and benefits have truly benefited the wealthy and big corporations.
When you look back since 2011 … think about it. You had a repeal of the millionaire estate tax. You have a repeal of the luxury gift tax. A repeal of income taxes on stocks and bonds. A reduction of the jet fuel tax. Corporate exemptions to the sales tax and exemptions for corporate income tax.
So, all of these major policy reforms around taxation have all been policies to benefit corporations and rich people. So the question is, where are the priorities for those citizens who are working the hardest to contribute to our economy?
If we are really about seeing … everybody being able to elevate their economic status, then you would demand that there be a set minimum wage, understanding the cost of housing inflation, taking into account people who have children and families they got to feed, the cost of housing, rent, being able to be approved for housing loans based on income. You got to think about that and setting a basic living standard where people can know they can go to work and be able to feed themselves.
Secondly, I just feel like if Tennessee wanted to see equity in the system, they would demand a minimum wage because everybody improves in my opinion, not only Black and brown communities, but everybody.
But because there’s so few regulations on what business have to pay, and the hiring practices — this is a right-to-fire state or a right-to-work state, basically — I think that our policies don’t reflect the values of trying to create an equitable workplace. The data show you that when these policies are not in place, Black people and brown people are suffering the most.
As someone who’s living in Memphis, Tennessee — that’s predominantly African American — you can look at our school system where half our kids are living below the poverty line, and the state of housing, and just the livelihood and the economic status of Black people in our city that is actually affected by it. It’s sad and it should be a crime.
I don’t think Tennessee is oblivious to its impact on which communities [it affects the most]. Again, I think they’re incentivizing businesses to keep people poor, knowing that Black and brown people are going to be at the brunt of that.
When you think of businesses in Memphis, they’re like warehouse jobs … and temp services that people have to rely on. That’s where where a large population of Black people are working at. But they’re paying them [minimum wage]. $15 an hour is still really not affordable, to be honest, if they’re getting that.
Because they’re temp workers, are they getting healthcare services? No. Getting healthcare off the marketplace is still really expensive. So, these people are going without healthcare services, making probably nothing, and they have to work 16 to 17 hour shifts just to make sure they can meet ends meet.
Then what does that lead to? Them not being able to watch their kids. And those other kids that’s getting in trouble out here in Memphis streets.
So, how we are building our economic base in Tennessee and the South is perpetrating a continuous system of poverty for Black and brown people? There’s not another study that needs to be shown that this is going to be the result. It’s just a matter of our politicians deciding to continue to reinforce this system or change their policies.
Rank-and-file taxpayers got a temporary reprieve from grocery taxes last year. But they went right back on the books while those businesses taxes were made permanent. What do you think about that?
Again, it’s about policy priorities. You know that grocery tax will help middle, working, and poor-class families tremendously. That loss of money could be made up if we kept many of these tax decisions in place that we had previously, right?
So, you can’t say that you don’t have no money. We could have had the money, but you decided to break off corporations and rich people over being able to sit here and put in a tax policy that supports the lower, working class.
This study says economic policies like there are “rooted in racism.” What do you think about that?
I do think it’s rooted in racism. As long as Black and brown people aren’t economically viable, then they don’t have really any impact politically. You can look at that in the campaign funding of Black candidates in Tennessee. We’re funded far less than Republican white folks, even white Democrats. As long as our community stays poor, then we can’t compete against rich people who have the ability, access, and resources to play in a political game in a real way.
I think this system of racism is reinforced through classism. As long as you keep people of color poor, other white folks get to stay on top. This, more than likely, correlates to who owns the most businesses that are doing well. Who owns the corporations? What’s the income makeup of policymakers and people that they’re voting to benefit? So, you can look at all those things, not just the economics side. It’s racism that is rooted in the whole system.
Anything I left out or that you’d like to add?
I want to challenge business owners and stakeholders and people of influence in the system to ask themselves, “Do you want to keep the status quo? Or, do you want to start putting us on the path for better?”
If a Tennessee GOP “slawmaker” (heh) gets his way, “hot slaw” will become an official state food of Tennessee.
The legislation supporting the idea advanced in a House committee of the Tennessee General Assembly Tuesday. A companion bill would make Cleveland, Tennessee, the hot slaw capital of the state.
Never heard of hot slaw? Many members of the House Public Service Subcommittee hadn’t either.
“It’s more of a mustard, vinegar, hot pepper type of slaw,” explained Rep. Kevin Raper (R-Cleveland), sponsor of the bills. “A lot of people thought that it was just cold slaw heated up. It’s nothing like that.”
Raper explained that the bill would make hot slaw “an official state food, not the state food,” stressing the words “an” and “the.” However, the bill’s caption, the brief but official language explaining the bill, says that the legislation ”designates hot slaw as the official state food.” Raper explained that other state foods could be barbecue from Memphis, hot chicken from Nashville, and Mt. Dew from Johnson City.
Hot slaw got its start in an old Cleveland drive-in movie theater called the Starview, which opened in 1955. Owners there tinkered with a recipe until they got it right, a recipe that is still secret today, Raper said.
The slaw is so popular around Cleveland that grocery stores stock it and restaurants serve it. Each spring The Hot Slaw Festival celebrates the dish in Cleveland, in which judges pick the favorite version submitted by local cooks.
Credit: Hot Slaw Festival via Facebook
“Hot saw is similar to coleslaw,” Raper said. ”It’s not a heated food. It is served cold. It’s a lot like cole slaw but it consists more of mustard, vinegar, peppers to create a unique flavor. Hot slaw in Cleveland has evolved from a side dish to use [as a condiment] on hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, barbecue, and even in lieu of chow-chow at times, and pinto beans as a result.”
While Raper’s other bill would officially make Cleveland the hot slaw capital of Tennessee, he said the city has already unofficially deemed itself the hot slaw capital of the U.S.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, Tennessee has two state foods. The tomato is the state fruit. Milk is the state beverage. Legislation last year made pumpkin pie the state’s official pie.
Tennessee lawmakers are making things harder on the poor and easier on the rich, and those old-timey class frictions are heating up in the rifts.
Republicans blame technical glitches and piles of red tape they created as obstacles to get millions of dollars to help low-income families here. Meanwhile, they cut taxes for the business class last year, plan to cut even more this year, and hope to free up more of everyone’s tax dollars to help everyone — no matter how much money they have — pay for private schools.
Gun violence dominated debate and headlines around the Tennessee General Assembly in 2023. Many vow to keep the issue in front of lawmakers in 2024. But if a school shooting in Nashville during last year’s regular session and an entire special session on gun violence last summer won’t move GOP lawmakers to act, rays of hope on the issue seem faint.
It’s way too early to predict what issue(s) may dominate discussions at the State Capitol in the coming weeks. But money seems an early leader, especially as news came late last year that once-hot state revenues are cooling thanks in large part to those 2023 GOP tax cuts.
Money matters have not seen center stage in Tennessee for awhile. The state’s budget has been pushed up and up in recent years with nary a cut in sight. That’s partly due to the new-ish ability to collect online sales taxes and a major surge in revenues from those business taxes in the past. But that won’t likely be the case this year.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is expected to unveil his new budget for Tennessee on Monday, during the annual State of the State address. Projected revenues — how much money officials think we’ll have to spend in the next year — will likely flatten.
This could present some difficult decisions for lawmakers, especially some on the House side, who may have not yet dealt budget cuts. If cuts come, it will be especially interesting to see where the state’s GOP-dominated purse-string-holders will make them (especially since they made the cuts necessary). This could also likely flatten the state’s ability to fund any new initiatives. (Think of it like this, if you quit a job, you might not have the money to pay for your existing car and you damn sure can’t buy a new one.)
Budgets are more than numbers. Budgets are priorities. For a household, that could mean the difference in saving for college later or going on vacation now. For local governments, that could mean the difference in more police or better parks. With its tax cuts last year, the Tennessee GOP prioritized at least one thing: more long-term money in the bank for the state’s businesses.
Now, as money matters begin to creep into the state spotlight once again, some old, tense questions are rising. Who pays for the government? Who does the government work for? Who wins? Who struggles?
So many of these questions have root in Tennessee’s overarching economic development model. That is, basically, how do we organize our economy? How do we build it?
Republicans here love to tout Tennessee as one of the most “business-friendly” states in the union. But don’t just take their word for it. Yahoo! Finance put the state in its top 10 for business friendliness last year and MSNBC ranked it in the top 3, both using different methodologies.
Tennessee’s economy, like many other Southern states, works on the basic trickle-down theory that lower business taxes will attract more businesses, which will hire more people and create more wealth that will “trickle down” to the lower classes.
Except it doesn’t, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The high tide promised by this economic theory does not lift all boats, it said. For a more in-depth look at how this plays out in Tennessee and across the South, see below (Economic Policy Institute Report).
Here, we’ll look at some issues and opinions on money and class that might shape debates as the legislature heads back to Nashville.
The lowest 20 percent of earners in Tennessee spend 12.8 percent of their total annual household income on taxes. (Chart: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy)
The poor and hungry
Back in 2019, The Beacon Center, a free market think tank in Nashville, discovered the Lee administration quietly sat on a stockpile of $730 million meant to help working poor families in Tennessee. For years, Tennessee got $190 million from the federal government to help these families get on their feet with monthly checks for childcare, transportation, and more.
Instead of finding ways to getting all of the money to needy families, Lee just did not. The initial discovery of the funds in 2019 led some on social media to decry Lee’s money management. Others saw GOP disdain for the poor.
“This is why [I march for universal basic income] today, because of villainous shit-holes like the governor of Tennessee who is hoarding $732 M in TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] money instead of spending it on reducing poverty,” reads a tweet from the time from Scott Santens, founder of the Income to Support All Foundation.
By 2021, the fund ballooned to nearly $800 million. Thanks to Beacon, a plan is now in place to spend that money down.
However, Lee’s plan puts a hurdle between those needy families and the money. Rather than go directly to families in need, the funds will in large part go to organizations or health departments that will give them temporary aid.
Lee administration officials said it has found a home for $717 million of the TANF reserve. But state Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) wants more in the hands of actual needy families. Introduced last week, her bill would increase TANF payments to cover rising inflation costs each year.
Meanwhile, thousands of families in Tennessee have less literal food on the table thanks to Lee administration computer problems. Last summer the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) updated some computer software. A glitch in the system resulted in a backlog of benefits for 35,000 recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes called food stamps.
TDHS Commissioner Clarence Carter said his team hopes to have the backlog cleared by March. He also said he’s not dragging his feet, telling state lawmakers last week that his team has “an almost desperate sense of urgency to get this right.” Tennessee Lookout editor Holly McCall pointed out this “kicker” from their story on the matter: “DHS officials noted that the staff brought in to help are keenly aware of the importance of the work: some department staff rely on food stamps themselves.”
Who pays?
Tennessee has the third-most regressive tax system in the country, according to the seventh annual “Who Pays?” report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Regressive taxes are those paid equally by all, no matter how much money they make. These, of course, hit lower-income taxpayers the hardest.
In Tennessee, this means the lowest 20 percent of earners (those making less than $21,000 each year) spend 12.8 percent of their total annual household income on taxes. The top 1 percent (those making over $661,600 each year) spend just 3.8 percent of their total income on taxes here. The poorest pay more than three times as much as the wealthy.
“States such as Florida, Tennessee, and Texas are often described as ‘low tax’ due to their lack of personal income taxes,” reads the report. “While this characterization holds true for high-income families, these states levy some of the nation’s highest tax rates on the poor.”
State Senator London Lamar (Photo: Dawn Majors | US capitol)
A tale of two tax cuts
State Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) can go back to 2011 and rattle off a list of GOP-sponsored policies “that have truly benefited the wealthy and big corporations.” The repeal of the millionaire estate tax. The repeal of the luxury gift tax. A repeal of income tax on stocks and bonds. A reduction of the jet fuel tax. Corporate exemptions to the sales tax. Exemptions for corporate income taxes.
“Our tax policy is incentivizing businesses for keeping people poor,” Lamar said. “I say that because since 2011 and when the Republicans got in office, the main tax reform and benefits have truly benefited the wealthy and big corporations.
“So, the question is, where are the priorities for those citizens who are working the hardest to contribute to our economy?”
Well, the GOP cut taxes for working-class families just last year. Well, kinda sorta. And it wasn’t much. And it wasn’t forever. But …
Remember that odd, three-month cut on the state’s grocery tax last year? It was a $273 million part of the $400 million Tennessee Works Tax Act, “the largest single tax cut in Tennessee history.” It cut the 4 percent tax for everyone from August to October. Then, the tax went straight back onto receipts.
It was a head-scratcher to many and seemed a solution to a problem that didn’t exist (except, y’know, that Tennessee is one of only 13 states that still tax groceries). Why? Where did this cut come from? Even folks on Reddit couldn’t pin the motivation on some coarse design to win votes because there was no upcoming election.
But it was the remaining cuts in the Tax Act that smarted some working-class taxpayers. While they got a one-time deal that put about $100 in their pockets, the state’s business class got a permanent tax cut worth about $127 million that would put thousands of dollars in their bank accounts each and every year.
The Tax Act seemed to prove Lamar’s notion. Meaningful, permanent cuts for those with means; shallow, temporary cuts for everyone else. (Though, legislation has been filed for this year’s session to permanently cut Tennessee’s grocery tax.)
This might all come into sharper focus later, especially if revenues continue to fall. Because it’s lost revenues from those business tax cuts knocking multi-million-dollar holes in the state budget.
So, should lawmakers indeed need to make cuts to programs it offers Tennessee’s taxpayers, it won’t be because the majority of them got a brief respite from grocery taxes.
Chart: Economic Policy Institute
#VoucherScam
Capitol-watchers have said Lee’s controversial plan to expand his school voucher program could be the biggest fight in Nashville this year. Lee eventually wants to expand the program to every student for any kind of school — public, private, charter, or home.
But the program would allow the vouchers, worth about $7,075 per student each year, for all students, with no income requirements. This means wealthy parents — who now pay taxes for public schools and tuition at private schools — could divert funds from the public school system.
The fight over the legislation may prove to be another class battle that could heat up in Nashville this year. For proof, dig around X for #LeesVoucherScam.
“The voucher scam takes tax dollars from our neighborhood public schools to pay for the private school education of the wealthy,” tweeted Teri Mai, a Democratic candidate running for a House seat in Middle Tennessee. “Simply put, the school voucher scam defunds public schools by funneling your tax dollars to private and religious schools.”
Economic Policy Institute Report
Southern politicians tout the region’s “business-friendly” economic development policies, but a new study finds those policies are rooted in racism and have failed most people who live here.
The October study is from Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonpartisan think tank focused on “the needs of low-and-middle-income workers in economic policy discussions.” The study looks at job growth, wages, poverty, and state GDP. The data, EPI said, “show a grim reality.”
The group characterized the Southern economic development model as one with “low wages, low taxes, few regulations on businesses, few labor protections, a weak safety net, and vicious opposition to unions.”
The state of Tennessee basically agrees with this and shouts it in all caps (literally) on its website under the “business climate” section.
“We believe in high expectations, low debt, and a pro-business regulatory environment,” reads the page from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. “Tennessee is proud to be a right-to-work state [also noting Tennessee’s low union participation] with no personal income tax. Our state and local tax burdens are among the lowest in the country, and our state budget operates with a healthy surplus, rather than a deficit.”
The EPI study said this does not work for everyone.
“While this economic model has garnered vast amounts of riches for the wealthiest people across the region, it is leaving most Southerners with low wages, underfunded public services, a weak safety net in times of economic downturns, deep racial divisions, and high rates of poverty,” said report author Chandra Childers, a senior policy and economic analyst for EPI’s Economic Analysis and Research Network.
Here are a few key takeaways from the report:
• Job growth across the South has failed to keep up with population growth. The share of prime-age workers (ages 25–54) who have a job is lower than the national average in most Southern states.
• Workers in Southern states tend to have lower earnings. Median earnings in nine Southern states are among the lowest in the nation, even after adjusting for lower cost of living in the South.
• Poverty rates are above the national average in most Southern states. Louisiana and Mississippi have the highest poverty rates in the nation, with nearly one in five residents living in poverty.
• Child poverty is highest in the South compared to any other region. At 20.9 percent, child poverty rates in the South are 3.7 percentage points higher than the region with the next-highest child poverty rate — the Midwest (17.2 percent).
• Southern states are among the lowest-GDP states. Nine of the 15 states with the lowest per-worker GDP are in the South.
The racist remnant of the Southern economic development model, according to EPI, is that business owners in the South continue to rely on “large pools of cheap labor,” particularly Black and brown people. The study points back to slavery in the South when Black people were not paid at all and then to Pullman porters who were “forced to rely on tips” after slavery ended. Now, incarcerated individuals can be required to work with no pay at all, the study said.
“The racist roots of this model have been obscured and have been replaced by a more acceptable ‘pro-business’ narrative,” reads the study. “The pro-business narrative suggests that low wages, low taxes, anti-union policies, a weak safety net, and limited regulation on businesses creates a rising tide that ‘lifts all boats.’”
Tennessee policies fit into this model, the study said, as the state has no minimum wage, no income tax, a high sales-tax burden for all residents, no expanded Medicaid program, a low per-worker GDP, and more.
Poverty is higher in Tennessee than in other parts of the country. This is especially true for people of color and particularly women of color, according to the data. The highest rates of poverty across the South are experienced by Black women. One in five lives in poverty, but it’s not due to an unwillingness to work, the study says. Black women have a higher employment-to-population (EPOP) ratio than women from any other racial or ethnic group in the South.
“One reason Black women’s poverty rates remain high in the South — despite a relatively high EPOP — is that they are disproportionately employed in jobs consistent with the occupations they were largely limited to during and after the end of slavery: care work, cleaning, and food production, including agricultural and animal slaughter work,” reads the study. “Because this work is largely done by Black, brown, and immigrant workers, consistent with the Southern economic development model, these jobs pay very low wages.”
Wages are lower in Tennessee than in other parts of the country, and again it’s especially true for people of color and particularly women of color, according to the report.
“On average, Black women in the South are paid $35,884 at the median and Hispanic women just $30,984, compared with $58,008 for white men,” reads the report.
If the Tennessee economic model is working like politicians claim, where does the money go? The study says it goes to the wealthiest Tennesseans. The top 20 percent richest Tennesseans share more than half (51 percent) of the state’s total income. The top 5 percent share 23 percent of the state’s aggregate income. The bottom 20 percent share just 3.4 percent.
“Many Southerners may believe their politician’s arguments that the Southern economic development model will deliver good, well-paying jobs,” reads the report. “However, the data presented here show clearly and emphatically that this model has failed those living in Southern states.”
Five years ago, a conservative think tank made an explosive revelation: Tennessee leaders had allowed a key anti-poverty program to amass a $730 million surplus —dollars from the federal government that never reached the struggling families for whom they were earmarked.
Fast forward to today: the state currently has a surplus of $717 million in the same federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — known in Tennessee as “Families First.” The size of Tennessee’s TANF balance dwarfs every state but one.
Officials with the state’s Department of Humans Services say they are making progress in putting the unspent funds to use.
In the coming years, all but $190 million of the amassed funds will be distributed in the form of multi-year grants to community groups, transferred to a health department nurses for newborns program and paid to IT contractors to overhaul the agency’s aging computer system. New grant awards announcements are expected this spring.
“Over the course of the next three to four years we will see a consistent reduction in those unexpended balances as grant funding is distributed,” said Danielle Cotton, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which manages the Families First program.
Critics, however, have questioned the lengthy timeline that has elapsed since the existence of the surplus was first brought to light in 2019, and the consequences of withheld resources for Tennessee’s working poor.
“The goal seems to be to give community grants to organizations when we know that TANF funding can go directly to the people who really need them,” said Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat who has a bill this year to mandate cost of living increases for the cash payments given to families, similar to the automatic adjustments linked to the governor’s salary.
“These dollars keep piling up when we have one of the most food insecure states in the nation,” Campbell said.
TANF is a federal program that provides an annual block grant to every state. Its purpose is to help lift families with children out of poverty and towards self-sufficiency. Tennessee receives about $190 million each year. The federal government places no timelines on when states must spend their annual allotment.
There are approximately 29,000 Tennesseans enrolled in the program — more than 23,000 of them children, according to the most recent department data publicly available.
Each state sets its own priorities, but uses a portion of the federal funding to send monthly cash stipends to low income families with kids.Tennessee’s monthly cash payment for a family of three averages $387. It is among the lowest TANF cash payments in the nation.
States may also use the funding to provide grants to community groups that provide services to working parents — services that include child care, transportation and job training.
In 2019, the Beacon Center, a conservative-leaning think tank based in Nashville, revealed the state had routinely failed to spend its annual $190 million allotment for more than a decade, amassing the then-largest surplus in TANF in the nation: $732 million. (The unspent funds are reserved for Tennessee’s use by the federal government: they do not accrue interest for the state.)
An immediate public outcry followed. And after initially defending the program’s spending decisions, Gov. Bill Lee changed course, pledging in early 2021 to make TANF reform one of his top legislative priorities.
The resulting “TANF Opportunity Act” was enacted with bipartisan support later that year. It addressed the accumulated reserves by capping any TANF surplus at $190 million in “unobligated funding.” It also increased the then-average family-of-three payment from $277 per month to the current $387. And it set time limits for the state to spend its annual TANF allotment.
DHS officials noted last week that the current $717 million in reserves are all obligated or in the process of being obligated for specific current and future purposes, in compliance with the law.
“Every dollar of the $717.5 million has a budgeted line item,” Cotton said. Several community grants are “in the contractual process for final obligations.”
The 2021 legislation also created a Families First community advisory group tasked with recommending reforms and monitoring outcomes of the spending decisions.
DHS Commissioner Clarence Carter, tapped by Gov. Bill Lee to lead the department in January 2021, detailed his ambitious approach at the time.
“We are using the TANF program to redesign Tennessee’s safety net,” Carter said at the advisory group’s first meeting in August 2021.
“Instead of a knee jerk response to, OK, we’ve got $700 million and let’s just get that money out the door, folks came together and were very thoughtful about what’s the most impactful way we can put those dollars into play and really have better results,” Carter said.
At the outset, however, the department faced challenges in distributing the hundreds of millions of dollars accumulated in its reserves.
The goal seems to be to give community grants to organizations when we know that TANF funding can go directly to the people who really need them.
– Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville
The funding distributed from the TANF reserve to community organizations providing safety net services comes with strict rules that require agencies to follow complex federal mandates as well as show measurable improvements for working families.
Cotton, the DHS spokesperson, said only a few agencies were willing or able to take on the grants.
“There are a limited number of organizations that serve our fellow Tennesseans in the public safety net, and even fewer organizations that want to comply with the requirements and regulations of a federal grant,” said Cotton, the DHS spokesperson.
“As such we have noticed that we are often reaching the same or similar audience with more and more opportunities but very few new participants,” she said.
As a result, earlier this year lawmakers amended the TANF legislation, extending deadlines for DHS to distribute the federal funding.
Instead of a requirement that DHS fully expend its annual $190 million allotment every 12 months, lawmakers extended its spending deadline to 18 months each year.
The law also extended the original legislation’s three-year deadline for the department to develop, implement and evaluate pilot programs with communities organizations from three years to four years, or until the 2026-2027 fiscal years.
And instead of a December 2025 deadline for the advisory group to issue a report on TANF reform progress, the new law gives the group another year, setting a new December 2026 deadline.
“Frankly it took us a little while longer than I anticipated, than the legislation anticipated, to get these organizations up and running,” Rep. David Hawk, who sponsored the law, told a legislative committee last year.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
