CAPITOL VIEW
By Pat Nolan, NEWSCHANNEL5 Political Analyst
June 24, 2022
BREAKING NEWS! ROE V. WADE IS OVERTURNED; METRO COUNCIL APPROVES A RECORD SPENDING PLAN BUT REOPENS OLD QUESTIONS ABOUT CITY BUDGETING; VICE MAYOR JIM SHULMAN ON INSIDE POLITICS; THE REPUBLICAN SUPER MAJORITY ALWAYS THINKS IT KNOWS BETTER; THE LIKELY FUTILE QUEST TO BEAT BILL LEE; THREE WEEKS IN, WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THE JANUARY 6 HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARINGS? FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEARLY 30 YEARS; THE TENNESSEE SECRETARY OF STATE IN SCANDAL; A GAS TAX MORATORIUM
BREAKING NEWS! ROE V. WADE IS OVERTURNED
On Friday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision, overturning its Roe v. Wade precedent, ending nearly 50 years of abortion rights being protected under the U.S. Constitution.
In a country already sharply divided over many issues, this ruling seems likely to further exacerbate tensions.
Some states are already implementing ‘trigger laws” aimed to limit and/or all but ban abortion access after Roe v. Wade is repealed. Here is the process of what will happen in Tennessee.
This remains a developing story with Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery set to hold a news conference later today (Friday) to outline his plans.
The decision is bringing tears of joy and celebration from those pro-life supporters who have worked for almost 5 decades for this day to come.
For those pro-choice advocates, there is disappointment and anger at the ruling.
The outcome, facilitated by recent court appointments by former President Donald Trump of three conservative justices, underscores that voting and winning elections, particularly for President and the U.S. Senate, is critical changing public policy and even a decades old decision of the Highest Court of the land.
METRO COUNCIL APPROVES A RECORD SPENDING PLAN BUT REOPENS OLD QUESTIONS ABOUT CITY BUDGETING
Tuesday night, the Metro Council voted 31-3 to approve a record $2.9 billion spending plan for Nashville. The budget takes effect July 1, which is the beginning of the new fiscal year.
The Council always changes the budget submitted by the mayor. That is true this year, although the Council only approved about $15 to $16 million in changes to Mayor John Cooper’s plan. Out of a nearly $3 billion total budget, that is barely a rounding number.
Still parts of both the mayor’s plan and the modifications made by the Council show a re-emergence of a concerning propensity by Metro to spend down its reserves, fund balances and other contingency funds to levels close to or below best practice standards suggested for cities across the country.
Here is a summary of the budget and the changes made by the Council.
You can see how many of the Council’s changes to the budget in particular rely on reserve and other contingency funds. Even Mayor’s Cooper’s original proposal used some fund balance to add up to 500 new employees across the government and make another record increase of $92 million for Metro Schools among other improvements.
All of these changes are for very laudable things. But a few council members warned with an uncertain economy looming (even a recession), this might not be the best time to count on Metro’s seeing a continuing significant rise in its revenue collections. City’s finance leaders also expressed misgivings during the Council meeting Tuesday night. But they did not use the power the Metro Finance Director has under the city’s charter to block the use of these reserve monies for a “lack of availability” of funds.
Take note of one the smaller amendments to the budget made by the Council. It takes $100,000 away from the Nashville Chamber of Commerce for economic development and uses the funds to hire a new housing analyst for the Metro Planning department. It will help deal with our affordable housing crisis. But even those proposing the change were clear they took the money from the Chamber as political retribution for that group supporting state legislation that would make members of the Metro School Board appointed by the mayor rather than chosen by the voters.
VICE MAYOR JIM SHULMAN ON INSIDE POLITICS
June is always a long month for Nashville’s Metro Council.
June is budget month.
That means, even in years like this year, when no property tax increase is being considered, the Council spends weeks of long hours in committee reviewing what the mayor recommends.
The Council has now approved a record $2.9 billion dollar spending plan.
What challenges lie ahead both in managing this budget and the other issues that lie ahead for Nashville?
To discuss that with us on INSIDE POLITICS is Vice Mayor Jim Shulman, who is the presiding officer of the Council. We thank the Vice Mayor, for joining us!
UPDATE: The Roe v. Wade ruling came down just before the taping of our interview. We discussed the matter with the Vice Mayor, including the likely reaction of the Council which he thinks will be passage of a resolution opposing or condemning the ruling at the next Council meeting on July 5.
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THE REPUBLICAN SUPER MAJORITY ALWAYS THINKS IT KNOWS BETTER
The Republican Super Majority in the Tennessee General Assembly always thinks it knows better than anybody else.
That is particularly true when it comes to COVID-19 and the still ongoing pandemic.
The latest example of their know- it- all attitude came this week when GOP legislative leaders in the House began pushing Governor Bill Lee not to accept or distribute the new Covid vaccine designed to keep children from ages 6 months through 4 years old, safe.
Their excuses for the state not distributing the new vaccine are lame. National health officials, who are the experts (these lawmakers are not) have found the new serums to be safe and effective. But our GOP lawmakers are used to getting their way. Last year, they forced state health officials to back off promoting other COVID-19 vaccines to keep teens safe, for equally ridiculous reasons. They threatened to dismantle the State Department of Health if they didn’t and ultimately the department’s leading expert on vaccines was fired.
Hopefully, Governor Lee will ignore this request from GOP lawmakers. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Nobody is being forced to take the shots. But if the Governor does knuckle under to this political pressure, his decision could create real problems for low -income families, as well as for a disproportionate share of black and brown families. Many of them don’t have the resources to employ a private pediatrician or have health insurance. They would go to their local county health departments which, of course, won’t have the new vaccines.
Dumb and dumber. That’s our Republican Super Majority.
THE LIKELY FUTILE QUEST TO BEAT BILL LEE
Governor Lee is for re-election this year.
Like all Tennessee governors able to seek a second four- year term (since 1978), he seems to have an easy path to win another 4 years. His primary opposition is unknown, and way- underfunded. The Democrats seem to be in the same boat although they did seek to hold a debate among themselves this week.
THREE WEEKS IN, WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THE JANUARY 6 HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARINGS?
The House Select Committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has now held six nationally televised public hearings. By all accounts (except from former President Donald Trump) the sessions have been must-see TV, producing new evidence, compelling testimony, revealing new videos and updated reports every news cycle.
But how many people are watching?
And what impact have the sessions had on the public’s view of Mr. Trump and about what happened leading up and on January 6?
As for former President Trump, he is still grousing about the committee. He even came to Nashville last Friday to make a speech about it. But he did well in one Senate race on the campaign trail last Tuesday. His hand-picked candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alabama won the state’s GOP primary, defeating the first candidate Trump endorsed in the race, then disowned. On the downside the two congressional candidates the former president endorsed in Georgia, lost.
In another win for Trump, in Texas, the state Republican Party endorsed a platform that says President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election. The Texas GOP also claims that the Lone Star State has a right to succeed from the Union and all manner of right- wing propaganda. Former President Trump has, of course, praised the platform.
After the latest public hearing of the House Select Committee on Thursday, there won’t be any more until July. The reason why seems to indicates the work of the committee is generating still more evidence, interest and potential testimony.
But with the committee continuing to say the danger to our democracy from January 6 is still a clear and present danger, what will the committee recommend be done to deal in the future with that? At this point, that remains unclear.
As a good Republican and Trump supporter, Governor Bill Lee this week downplayed the importance of the select committee’s hearings, suggesting the group is looking at the past not what is important in the country today.
Of course, that’s not true. The Governor added that, as far as future history courses taught in Tennessee schools (the state is beginning a social studies curriculum review), he thinks that students should be taught what happened on January 6 was “a day of lawlessness” not an insurrection. Whatever.
The governor seems to believe our students should be taught to focus only on those involved in breaking the law by entering the Capitol that day, and not those involved in creating the event and other efforts to overturn a fair and honest election.
The Governor could not be more wrong and, obviously has not watched much, if any, of the hearings.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEARLY 30 YEARS
For the first time in nearly three decades (1994), Congress appears to be on the verge of passing gun legislation. It is not nearly as broad and sweeping as President Biden and gun regulators want, and it is still too much for the NRA and other gun rights advocates to stomach, but it has enough bi-partisan support in the Senate to avoid a filibuster and likely enough votes to pass the House as well.
Here is what the bill, now in written form, not just in a framework, contains.
After handily getting more than 60 votes during preliminary procedural votes to avoid a filibuster, the full Senate voted 65-33 to pass the gun bill Thursday night.The bi-partisan measure received the votes of all 50 Senate Democrats, along with 15 Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
A vote to pass the bill in the House is expected next week before Congress goes on its week- long Fourth of July recess.
At the same time that Congress is about to approve new gun regulations for the first time in nearly three decades, the U.S. Supreme on Thursday issued its first major ruling in the area of guns and Second Amendment rights in nearly a decade. The High Court went in the opposite direction from Congress and expanded gun rights.
Tennessee law already allows any person legally allowed to carry a fire arm (over 21 or over 18 if in the military) concealed or unconcealed guns and do so without a permit from the state.
Tennessee’s outgoing Attorney General, Herbert Slatery has praise for the High Court’s ruling.
There is a debate about this, but some legal scholars are already saying the court’s gun rights ruling is broad enough to encourage court challenges to others gun regulation laws across the nation, as well as to the new federal law Congress seems ready to pass.
THE TENNESSEE SECRETARY OF STATE IN SCANDAL
Tre Hargett, Tennessee’s Secretary of State, was pulled over in his state car and received a DUI citation last weekend. Media reports say he got in trouble leaving the Bonnaroo Festival. But court records in the case say it happened after he left a bar in Tullahoma.
Hargett was elected by the Tennessee General Assembly to serve as the state’s 37th secretary of state in 2009 and re-elected in 2013, 2017 and 2021. His current term expires in 2025.
A GAS TAX MORATORIUM
The average cost of a gallon in the United States went down a few cents this week.
But it remains very near to the record $5 a gallon mark it reached just last week.
Like all modern Presidents, Joe Biden is being blamed for the crisis and the overall record level of inflation (6.8%) in the nation.
To respond, Mr. Biden has proposed, beginning in July, a three- month moratorium on the federal gas tax ,which is 18 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24 cents a gallon on diesel fuel.
Congressional approval is needed and that looks uncertain, at least, in the Senate.
The administration says the three- month gas tax break would expire at the end of September. But given how long it takes for Congress to act on most legislation, it could be September before the tax holiday on gas even came to a vote.
Some states have already done a gas tax moratorium, with mixed reviews. To give motorists and truckers more relief at the pump, the President would like other states to impose a temporary gas tax break.
Tennessee Democratic lawmakers said back in the spring, the state should do that. But ultimately Governor Lee said no and looked at other ways to help the public with inflation.
After the President’s announcement, he says he still feels that way. He believes a one month sales tax holiday on food that will begin in August along with a year- long holiday from drivers having to pay the state fees to renew their vehicle tags is a better way to help Tennesseans get a break from inflation.
