CAPITOL VIEW
By Pat Nolan, NEWSCHANNEL5 Political Analyst
April 21, 2023
THE $2.1 BILLION ROOFED TITAN STADIUM AND EVENTS CENTER IS ONE VOTE AWAY FROM REALITY; HERE’S YOUR HAT---WHAT YOUR HURRY? STATE LAWMAKERS SEEK TO END SESSION AND FLEE NASHVILLE TO AVOID VOTING ON GUN REFORM; YET ANOTHER SCANDAL ROCKS THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN ITS FINAL HOURS; ELSEWHERE ON THE HILL; COMING TO GRIPS WITH NASHVILLE’S HISTORY; THE PRICE TO KNOWINGLY AND PERSISTENTLY TELL LIES ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION COULD GO EVEN HIGHER FOR FOX NEWS; LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD; THE DEBT CEILING DEBATE GENERATES MORE NOISE BUT NO RESOLUTION IS IN SIGHT
THE $2.1 BILLION ROOFED TITAN STADIUM AND EVENTS CENTER IS ONE VOTE AWAY FROM REALITY
One more final approval, and the $2.1 billion- dollar roofed Titans stadium and events center, located on a totally revitalized East Bank, will be a reality.
The Metro Council will take that final vote next Tuesday after approving the plan 25-11 on second reading this past week (Tuesday). But it will also hold another public hearing on the measure before voting a final time.
This week to discuss what all this means for our area, and the challenges that still lie ahead for this largest construction project in Nashville and Tennessee history, are Metro Councilmember At Large Burkley Allen and 6th District Councilman Brett Withers.
We thank them for joining us.
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UPDATE: A new Vanderbilt poll finds just over 50% of the Nashvillians surveyed, say they oppose the new stadium. A likely well-funded mayoral candidate, retired business executive Jim Gingrich, is now running a TV ad that intimates that as mayor he would stop a stadium project like the one the Council is set to make a final vote on next Tuesday.
HERE’S YOUR HAT---WHAT YOUR HURRY? STATE LAWMAKERS SEEK TO END SESSION AND FLEE NASHVILLE TO AVOID VOTING ON GUN REFORM
Governor Bill Lee went on the offensive this week. He is demanding an immediate vote by the Tennessee Legislature on gun reform.
And what is the response of the Republican lawmakers who control Tennessee’s Capitol Hill?
They appear to be in an all-out sprint to wrap up their session and adjourn for the year by as early as today (Friday) or no later than this weekend….all to avoid a vote on the gun issue, something that might offend the GOP lawmakers’ gun lobby masters.
Here is an example from Thursday. With the Governor’s attempts going nowhere on the Hill, Nashville State Senator Jeff Yarbro made a last ditch effort to bring a red flag law out of committee to the floor for be debated. It was quickly and easily tabled.
The Republican leadership’s excuses to send the gun issue to a summer study, or to an outside blue- ribbon committee, or to wait and hold a special session of the Legislature this summer are just delay tactics, hoping this overwhelming outcry for gun reform will ease or go away.
Still reeling and on the defensive on the guns issue in the wake of the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville last month, GOP lawmakers then made another big political mistake in their over-reaction and expulsion of to two Democratic lawmakers (and the near expulsion of a third) who led demonstrations on the floor of the House in favor of gun law changes.
That effort backfired, with the two expelled lawmakers becoming national political figures, and were quickly returned to their seats on an interim basis by their local lawmakers.
The GOP Super Majority seems to have decided on calling it quits for the year, because the political heat being generated, by now weeks of protests for gun reform, show no signs of letting up.
That included this week hands and arms linked to the Capitol demonstration as thousands of protestors linked arms and hands from the Monroe Carroll Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt all the way to the Capitol….a distance of 3 miles!
More and more religious groups, including conservative ones, are speaking out for gun change. The three Catholic bishops in Tennessee are among them.
Perhaps most alarming to the GOP, a new poll show statewide finds huge and bi-partisan support for gun reform.
YET ANOTHER SCANDAL ROCKS THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN ITS FINAL HOURS
Interestingly, one East Tennessee lawmaker and a leader of the House Caucus leadership team will not make it to the end of this session. He resigned Thursday after sexual harassment allegations involving legislative interns emerged against him.
He apparently resigned within hours after NEWSCHANNEL5 INVESTIGATES confronted him about the harassment charges. Ironically, this lawmaker voted to oust all three members of the Tennessee Three.
I guess I now see why Republican lawmakers want to get out of town before any more shoes drop, and more scandals come to light.
Back on gun reform, the mayors of Tennessee’s four largest cities (Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga) are sending letters to state leaders outlining their gun reform agenda, including stopping the alarming rise of guns stolen out of cars being used to commit more crimes. The situation is particularly shameful because, while the state law allows guns to be left in cars, they are supposed to be locked away. But the gun lobby made sure that provision is not enforceable, because there are no penalties for failing to secure guns stored in cars.
While GOP lawmakers are quickly fleeing for the exits to avoid gun reform, they did take time this week to give final approval to a new law (if Governor Lee signs it) that will give more legal protections to gun and ammunition manufacturers, dealers and sellers.
On Thursday, the Super Majority once again showed it knows better than anyone, outlawing community oversight boards in both Memphis and Nashville. The panels are police watchdog groups and were established in Nashville by a strong majority (58%+) in a voter referendum to amend the Metro Charter.
They Super Majority will deny it, but this new law (assuming Governor Bill Lee signs it or lets it become law), will only further perceptions the current General Assembly is racist, given the strong support for such oversight boards in the African American community.
Nashville stands poised to get hit with more rounds of punishment from the Super Majority, all in revenge for Metro declining to host the 2024 Republican National Convention. Legal action over the potential new laws remain a possibility.
Finally in its waning hours, the Legislature finally approved Juneteenth as an official state holiday. Also in a rare bi-partisan vote, lawmakers turned consumer crusaders, passing a bill that addresses the multiple problems and controversies that concern concert ticket sales and fees. Note, this time, Republicans even allowed the measure to be co-sponsored by Democrats!
ELSEWHERE ON THE HILL
The only thing the Tennessee Constitution requires our elected officials to approve every year is a state operating budget. That will likely be the law before the week is over.
It took nearly this entire legislative term, but it appears lawmakers are beginning to address concerns by parents and educators that a new state law that goes into effect this year should be at least modified. The law says third graders who don’t make a certain score on the state’s reading test, should either be forced to retake 3rd grade or go to summer school.
With almost 2/3s of Tennessee students already reading below grade level, disaster looms ahead. The Senate this week approved a bill to provide more options and leeway before students are flunked.
But in typical “too little and too late” fashion, even with the House approving the measure on Thursday, it won’t take effect until the next school year in 2023-2024, leaving Tennessee’s current 3rd graders in at risk under the current law.
In another “what are they thinking” matter, why are Tennessee state officials demanding at risk families repay the extra SNAP money they received during the pandemic. We are talking in the thousands of dollars per family!
Yes, the overpayment was done by mistake. But the mistake was made by state officials, not those receiving the funds that pay for food staples. Why should they be the ones punished and not the bureaucrats?
That is particularly true since the federal government allows states to request a waiver and not have to recollect the funds. This is a no-brainer. The state should request the waiver and quit terrorizing low-income families!
Another scandal, regarding the massive backlog of testing of sexual assault rape kits, that has been festering for years, will remain that way at the end of this session. Lawmakers have refused to include in this year’s budget a request from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for enough money to clear the rape kit backlog. That means sexual assault victims will remain frustrated and predators are left on the loose.
Finally, as lawmakers depart for the year, they will leave taxpayers with another lawsuit to defend. This one is from the ACLU and a group of LGBTQ groups opposed to the state law passed this year that bans transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming health care, including hormone therapy or puberty blockers.
COMING TO GRIPS WITH NASHVILLE’S HISTORY
On Saturday April 22, Nashville will unveil a historic marker to Betty Page, a native of our city, who in the 1950s and 1960s became the nation’s “queen of pinups.”
While her reputation was a subject of controversy at times, history tends to take a more long- range of view of things.
That’s why I strongly support Metro rectifying a long-term lack of official recognition of the critical role of attorney and former city councilman, Dr. Z. Alexander Looby, in Nashville’s Civil Rights movement.
This week on Wednesday, April 19 saw the 63rd anniversary (1960) of a key event in Nashville’s search for justice. The day began with the home of Dr. Looby and his wife dynamited by white racists. Fortunately, they both survived. But the community was galvanized and marched in great numbers to the Courthouse where they demanded to meet with Nashville Mayor Ben West.
During that conversation, Mayor West was asked directly, if he thought it was “right as a man,” for downtown businesses to continue the practice to refuse to serve African Americans at their lunch counters.
Civil rights protestors had for months staged sit-ins at the lunch counters while many in the black community boycotted downtown. The sit-in participants were often beaten by white toughs, but the only ones arrested were the black protesters.
Dr. Lobby had often been the legal counsel, who bailed out, and defended those arrested in court.
On the day of march, Mayor West responded that “as a man” he did think it was wrong to refuse service at the lunch counters. Those comments marked a turning point, as over the next few weeks, the business began to desegregate their lunch counters.
In recognition of the significance of that day (April 19, 1960) and the role of Dr. Looby in Nashville’s Civil Rights movement, there is now a move to designate that day every year, Dr. Z. Alexander Looby Day in Nashville.
This is a wonderful idea, and long overdue. It should be endorsed and implemented by outgoing Mayor John Cooper and our (still) 40-member Metro Council before this summer’s election!
THE PRICE TO KNOWINGLY AND PERSISTENTLY TELL LIES ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION COULD GO EVEN HIGHER FOR FOX NEWS
Given what is the public record about the ongoing and persistent lies that FOX NEWS deliberately told its audience about the2020 election, it could well be much more than the $787.5 million the news network agreed to pay Dominion Voting System. There are other lawsuits pending in the courts.
Freedom is never free. But there are and should be consequences for lying about it.
LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD
This week saw several stories looking ahead or behind in politics.
Locally, the state of Tennessee has decided not to appeal a three judge panel decision last week that struck down a portion of the new state law that Nashville must cut the size of its Metro Council from 40 members to 20, and do so, by the August election. Metro says the request gave way too short a notice and was also confusing and unfair. The court panel agreed, and the state has decided to wait and allow the Council to remain at its current size until at least the city elections in 2027.
But will the state or Metro win the lawsuit when it’s argued on its merits? Metro claims the entire new law is unconstitutional while the state seems to be talking like a 20-member Metro Council in 2027 is a certainty.
We will see.
On the national level, still more Tennesseans have been found guilty of violating the law in their participation in the January 6, 2021 takeover of the U.S. Congress to stop the results of the 2021 presidential election. The latest two will be sentenced in September.
Looking ahead to the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump is running again. After a brief trip to Nashville last weekend, he seems to have emerged with the support of a significant portion of the current Tennessee congressional delegation, including both Senators (Marsha Blackburn and Bill Haggerty) and at least three of our eight GOP congressmen (John Rose, Mark Green and Chuck Fleischman).
The support would seem to indicate that Mr. Trump is the frontrunner for his party’s nomination next year, including both here in the Volunteer State and across the country.
THE DEBT CEILING DEBATE GENERATES MORE NOISE BUT NO RESOLUTION IS IN SIGHT
With the country likely pushing over its authorized debt limit as early as June, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy produced his own bill this week, outlining cuts in previous (Democratic approved) government spending while authorizing a higher debt limit through early 2024.
While the Speaker says his bill will pass the House, there are grumbling and growing concerns about whether Congressman McCarthy has the votes in his GOP House Caucus that just barely outnumbers the Democrats.
If the McCarthy bill passes in the House, it is likely dead- on- arrival in the Democratic Senate even though one maverick Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virgina says he applauds the McCarthy plan.
Meanwhile President Joe Biden is in attack mode on the House leadership debt ceiling plan.
