Interstate construction in Downtown Nashville
A bill to arm teachers was scheduled to be heard in the state House on the final Monday of the General Assembly’s session, and the chamber’s gallery was once again packed with protesters holding signs calling for gun control legislation. Two days later, the state’s $56.2 billion budget passed in the House. That day, for one of the the first times since the Covenant School shooting on March 27, the gallery was nearly empty.
This was a common theme throughout the session. Before the gun violence protests began, legislators and lobbyists were relatively free to roam the halls of the Capitol with little fear of being harangued by protesters. While issues like abortion, trans rights and guns might have the pull to get people to rally, economic policy isn’t exactly a barn-burner of a topic. But while less exciting, the budget has a very significant impact — and provides some good indications of where the Republican supermajority’s true priorities lie.
Gov. Bill Lee’s $3.3 billion Transportation Modernization Act took up one of the largest chunks of the budget, and despite passing with bipartisan support, it drew the ire of critics on both sides of the aisle for its lack of ambition and introduction of “choice lanes” — which advocates adamantly say are not toll roads. Despite Nashville Democrats like Sen. Heidi Campbell criticizing the plan as another instance of big cities being shortchanged, the bill passed with relatively little obstruction.
Other pieces of the budget were far smaller but nevertheless significant. After Lee originally proposed $100 million for his anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, the funding was later cut to $20 million.
The legislature also set aside $50 million for future prison construction. That, combined with a number of bills to increase prison sentences — as well as a piece of legislation allowing children to be tried as adults — indicates the legislature doesn’t plan to shy away from mass incarceration anytime soon.
To the displeasure of the Democrats and thousands of protesters who visited the Capitol over the past several weeks, there was no funding for any form of gun legislation in the budget. What was included was $200 million for Lee’s school safety plan, which includes $140 million to place armed guards in every Tennessee public school, and $27 million for security upgrades to public and private schools.
It wouldn’t be a Tennessee budget without some tax cuts. One piece of legislation provides a one-time, three-month grocery-tax holiday for families. But lumped in with that is an estimated $271 million tax break for businesses. Another tax cut, which received bipartisan support, capped the amount any one entity has to pay in jet fuel taxes at $1 million — a huge tax break for corporations like FedEx. Jet fuel taxes go toward funding airports, and with that loss of revenue, the burden will be placed on the general fund.
The Republican supermajority denied $13 million of funding for a bill from Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis) that would have required rape kits to be tested within 30 days. They did manage to approve, however, $16.2 million for renovations to airports in the counties of Republican leadership — as well as $2 million for another audit of Tennessee State University.
While the budget passed with bipartisan support in both chambers, Democratic lawmakers made it clear that they were not fully satisfied. Items with Democratic support such as paid leave for state employees made it worth their vote, but lawmakers stood during debate to express concerns that the budget was not doing enough for issues like health care and poverty.
With national attention trained on Tennessee, the state legislature passed laws punishing Metro and restricting gender-affirming care — but nothing on gun control
