The second session of the 105th General Assembly wrapped up last night, with last minute compromises on lottery scholarships and passage of Governor Bredesen's proposed state budget with wide ranging cuts including the elimination of 2000 state jobs. The budget passed in the Senate 31-1 and 91-4 in the House.

The Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus talks about the session...

Rep. Campfield:

The Gov is killing the drunk driver licence [sic] revocation bill. He is saying he can not afford the 75 employees needed to process the information. I started to wonder. 75 people to type in a revocation of someones [sic] licence at the DMV? How many drunk drivers does the state catch in one year?

I did some simple math, lets just say it takes all of ten minutes to type one in. That is 6 per hour x 8 hours in a day x 5 days a week x 50 weeks a year x 75 employees that totaled 900,000 DUI arrests in one year. I did not realize that almost 1/6 of the states total population of 6 million (That includes every man, women, child and elderly person of the state. some who I doubt drive at all) get arrested every year for a DUI! Look out, our roads are more dangerous then I thought.

Fortunately, the Tennessee legislature doesn't pass bills based on simple-minded calculations such as these. Bills must have a "fiscal note" explaining the financial impact of the legislation.

The bill in question is HB4213/SB4196. The fiscal note for HB4213 says there are "34,000 DUI arrests and approximately 27,000 convictions per year," which answers Campfield's first question.

It goes on to say:

To implement the provisions of this bill [Department of Safety] will require the following additional resources: 44 additional positions in the Driver License Issuance Division; 17 additional positions in the Information Processing Division; two additional positions in the Human Resource Division; two additional positions in the Fiscal Services Division; three additional positions in Information Resources; and seven additional positions in the Legal Division. The total number of positions required is estimated to be 75.

It also estimates that three additional Chancellors with two support positions each will be needed to handle appeals, plus one additional Court of Appeals Judge with a staff of three support positions.

This bill appears to be a more comprehensive replacement for HB2882, which Campfield co-sponsored. The fiscal note for HB2882 says the Department of Safety would need 35 additional employees and that the Attorney General would need two additional lawyers and a paralegal.

So Rep. Campfield doesn't even read or understand the legislation he cosponsors and supports, or he would know that there is a lot more to it than hiring someone to "type in a revocation of someones [sic] licence at the DMV."

Drafting legislation is complicated business best suited for adults. Perhaps the simple-minded ought to find more suitable work.

The current session of the Tennessee General Assembly is winding down, and while restricting abortion is off the table, coal mine operators are free to continue blasting the tops off mountains, and AT&T got its cable franchise bill passed putting hundreds of lobbyists out of work, there are still a number of important bills pending such as home health care for seniors, lottery scholarships, paper ballots, and more. The Nashville Tennessean has a summary. Oh, and there's that budget thing.

According to Knoxville's Metro Pulse, a citizen has filed a formal complaint with the Blount County Election Commission stating that Rep. Doug Overbey (R-Maryville) cannot serve as both a sitting judge and a state legislator at the same time, and is therefore not qualified to run against incumbent Sen. Raymond Finney (R-Maryville) for State Senate or hold his current seat in the House.

"State Rep. Randy Rinks of Savannah, the House Democratic Caucus chairman, announced today he will not seek re-election to a 10th two-year term in this year's elections." Other reports hint that Rinks will run for Secretary of State.

I contacted State Sen. Raymond Finney who is on the Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee (and also happens to be my State Senator) about the bottle bill legislation. He responded:

It appears that this bill and its companion House bill, HB1829, have not moved in the Senate and House since May, 2007 and February, 2007, respectively.

As we are in the waning days of the 105th General Assembly (we hope to adjourn some time in May, 2008), it would seem to me that the prospect of this legislation being enacted this year is slim.

He didn't comment one way or another regarding his position on the proposed legislation.

State Senator and former Lt. Governor John Wilder, D-Mason, has announced he will not seek reelection:

I have decided to not seek another term as State senator. I feel the time I have spent serving has been worth the difference it has made. If my life has made any difference, it has been as State senator. It is a hard thing for me to say I am not running. I’ve been running all my life. I want to thank all of you who have made the difference in my life. I want to thank those of you who have served. I want to thank the good staff we have and those who have honored me by serving me. Together we have made the difference.

I want to encourage those of you who will stay here and those who will newly be elected to be good State senators. To be STATESMEN. To do what is good and right for this state and leave partisan politics out of it. It is destructive, not constructive. Each district in this great state needs men and women who will vote their conscience and not what some partisan politician tells them to. The good of our state depends on it.

Tennessee lawmakers have introduced a tort "reform" bill aimed at protecting nursing home operators from lawsuits. The bill (SB4075/HB4053) would:

• Require lawsuits against long-term care facilities involving health-related services to be brought solely as medical malpractice action (see separate post about what they want to do to "malpractice" lawsuits)

• Allow operators to require patients to waive their right to a jury trial as a condition of admission

• Limit non-economic damages to $300,000

According to Medical News Today, a prominent nursing home operator says the legislation is needed because of personal injury lawyers driving up the cost of liability insurance:

"The average annual cost of items like liability insurance, legal services and other liability-related issues is now $500,000 per Tennessee nursing home - enough to hire and pay for 10 new nurses," said Steve Flatt, senior vice president of development for National Healthcare Corp., an operator of several Tennessee nursing homes.

"The problem is that our laws right now allow the filing of limitless lawsuits claiming tens of millions of dollars in damages," Flatt said. "The result is that the big- money personal injury lawyers from Texas and Florida have been arriving regularly to pelt our courts with lawsuits."

Raise your hand if you think nursing homes will use any savings from this legislation to hire more nurses.

And if the name National Healthcare Corp. rings a bell, it's probably because of the tragic nursing home fire at one of their facilities in Nashville that claimed sixteen lives. The deaths resulted in more than 30 lawsuits.

The company has been the target of other lawsuits alleging abuse and neglect, including a Warren Co. case in which the jury awarded $4.1 million in compensatory damages and $28.9 million in punitive damages, which were later reduced to $163,000.

The company was also the target of a probe into massive Medicare fraud. They settled with the U.S. Department of Justice for $27 million.

Instead of allowing special interests to influence legislation, Tennessee should pursue better regulation and oversight of nursing homes to protect the safety and dignity of patients in these facilities. Who lobbies for the people?

Tennessean: Senate approves amendment to limit abortions

The state Senate handily approved a constitutional amendment allowing more limits on abortion, but the measure faces uncertain prospects in the House.

The vote was 23-9, with six Democrats voting for it.

Along the way, it was amended to include exceptions for rape, incest, and to protect the life of a pregnant woman. But:

[Sen. Diane Black, R-Gallatin] resisted efforts by several Democrats to insert a constitutional right to abortions in such cases.

Those are exceptions that President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander support, said Sen. Beverly Marrero, D-Memphis.

It still has to get out of House committee, pass in the House, and again next year in both the House and the Senate by a two-thirds majority before it would go on the ballot for Tennessee voters to decide.

UPDATE: Joe Powell has the vote breakdown and commentary.

HB3029 by Campfield creates a "tax-me-more fund" in the general fund for voluntary donations by taxpayers; all funds in such account are earmarked for abortion prevention:

Recognizing that there are individuals and entities who believe they are undertaxed and who advocate a greater tax burden for Tennesseans, it is hereby declared the policy of the state of Tennessee to provide these individuals and entities an opportunity to contribute more to state government. In furtherance of this policy, there is hereby established within the general fund a separate account to be known as the "Tax-Me-More Account".

It also requires a redesign of all state tax forms to include designation of additional "contributions". (There is no fiscal note attached to the bill indicating how much this would cost.)

Is there really a need in state government for adolescent nonsense like this? Knoxville Republicans should be ashamed for sending this guy over there to turn the Tennessee House of Representatives into Romper Room when the state has serious business to conduct.

As mentioned earlier today at BlountViews, State Rep. Doug Overbey (R-Maryville) will challenge incumbent State Sen. Raymond Finney (R-Maryville) in the 8th district senate primary.

According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Overbey says:

"All across the district, I hear people saying they want a senator who will stand up for them, represents their conservative values..."

It's hard to imagine a more conservative state senator than Finney. He supports the anti-abortion amendment, he supports guns in public parks, bars, and now in the Capitol building, and last year he introduced a bill directing the Department of Education to determine once and for all that God created everything and therefore all this "evolution" stuff is just a bunch of junk science. And he's a medical doctor.

Perhaps what Rep. Overbey is really saying is that people around the district want a senator who isn't batshit crazy.

At any rate, since I probably won't be voting in the state Republican primary, will all you Republican lurkers please vote for Overbey? OK, thanks.

And with all this infighting, will Blount Democrats field a candidate? Probably not. All seven of us are too busy blogging and watching each other's backs...

HB2453 by State Rep. Eric Swafford (R-Pikevillle) creates a new National Rifle Association specialty license plate. The plates would only be available to certified NRA members.

Would this be the first specialty license plate not available to the general public? Is that legal?

You may recall the story from back in September about the "Sportsman's Wildlife Foundation", which was founded by State Rep. H. E. Bittle Jr. (R-Knoxville) who is the foundation's CEO. Five of its six board members are members of his family.

Rep. Bittle had pushed through legislation for a new "Tennessee Sportsman" specialty license plate. Some of the proceeds were designated to fund his foundation. Through September of last year, the foundation had received over $900,000 from sale of the specialty plates.

The money was used to purchase 329 acres in Cumberland County and build a luxury "hunting lodge" (appraised at $319K) to promote "hunter safety instruction."

This week, State Rep. Gary Odom (D-Nashville) filed HB2435, which "Redesignates portion of revenue from sportsman new specialty earmarked license plates to TWRA for hunter education instead of Sportsman's Wildlife Foundation."

Rep. Odom also filed HB2434, which "Requires that all nonprofit organizations for which new specialty earmarked license plates are issued on or after July 1, 2008, be certified for nonprofit status by the secretary of state prior to such plates' initial issuance; any plate authorized for organization that is not certified is deemed obsolete and invalid."

(When we first mentioned this story at KnoxViews, we checked the Tennessee Secretary of State's website and found that the foundation's charter had been administratively dissolved in 1999, just four months after the legislation funding it was passed. It's charter was reinstated in December 2001, but the foundation continued to receive funds from sale of specialty license plates during that period.)

Thanks to Rep. Odom and Tennessee Democrats for their oversight to make sure state funds are spent as intended instead of on a luxury hunting lodge that benefits a former Republican legislator.

The 105th Tennessee General Assembly will reconvene on Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at noon. It should be an interesting and exciting session, with lots of action in a huge election year.

Tennessee Democrats will be busy introducing progressive legislation to move the state forward. Here's a preview of some of the bills we can expect:

• As a follow up to their Helping Heroes scholarship program for Tennessee veterans, Democrats will focus on expanding opportunity with new eligibility standards for HOPE scholarships and by making appropriate adjustments to retention standards. Democrats will also introduce a program to give medical school assistance to future doctors and nurse practitioners who will then provide primary care in rural areas. Recognizing that the entire state benefits when more Tennesseans go to college, Democratic lawmakers are working to make this happen.

• Democrats will introduce a bill (and possibly a constitutional amendment) to tie the state minimum wage to the federal minimum wage, and automatically increase the state minimum wage after any five year period in which the federal minimum wage isn't increased.

• Democrats will propose improved consumer protection, safety, and disclosure standards for toys and other imports from China.

• Tennessee Democrats are also working with business and labor on a Tennessee Family Medical Leave Act.

• Democrats are studying a state constitutional amendment to protect stem cell research.

• The previously announced copper theft bill will include stiffer penalties for illegally selling scrap metal and more effective oversight of scrap metal dealers. This has become an enormous issue across the country. Thieves are stealing copper from churches and graveyards in some cases. A few months ago, thieves hit the monuments on the Chickamauga battlefield.

Look for Democrats in the state legislature to continue the fight for education and our health, safety, and economic wellbeing as we enter a historic year of progressive change in Tennessee and across the nation.

Local officials from Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City met with nine state senators and representatives to discuss the Tri-Cities' joint legislative policy for 2008. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey attended. Ramsey is from Blountville in the Tri-Cities area.

A joint resolution was presented to lawmakers. Among other things, it opposes police and fire unions and supports the AT&T statewide cable franchise bill.

The Bristol Herald Courier and TriCities.com file this report.

A special Tennessee legislative committee was formed to study the problem of copper theft. The committee has drafted legislation that will be sponsored by Senator Jim Kyle (D-Memphis) and Representative Mike McDonald (D-Portland) in the next session:

Under the legislation, all persons engaged in the scrap metal business would be required to register with the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance. Scrap dealers cannot purchase metal unless the seller has a state or federally issued photo id and provides a thumbprint. Dealers are required to keep detailed descriptions of each individual transaction and cannot purchase metal from anyone under the age of 18. Dealers that purchase copper, catalytic converters, and air conditioning coils and condensers are prohibited from making cash payments to the seller.

Read more here. The text of the bill is here.