Happy Presidents Day! Heavy rains are in the forecast, so be careful out there this week and keep an eye on your sump pumps.
MOURNING
We collectively mourn the loss of our friend and community leader, Tullu Schuyler Quinn. In just over a decade, Tullu identified a need in our community and turned a radical idea into the Nashville Food Project, feeding thousands of individuals per week in the process and connecting people to food systems and the land. Though Tullu left us too soon, our city will benefit from a life well-lived for years to come. I, like many others, was truly inspired by Tullu's kindness and her acts and will strive to follow her example.
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RUNNING
I have officially pulled my petition to run for re-election to the Tennessee House in the newly redrawn District 55. The district I currently represent in the state house, District 55, now stretches from Hobson Pike to 21st Avenue South through parts of multiple neighborhoods, including Cane Ridge, Antioch, Woodbine, Berry Hill, Melrose, 12South and Belmont-Hillsboro.
If you reside in the new District 55 and would like to sign my petition to qualify on the primary ballot, please email me. If you know someone who lives in the new District 55, I hope you will speak favorably of me. While I have already started visiting with and reaching out to neighborhood leaders, I would greatly appreciate all the help you can provide.
REDISTRICTING
The GOP supermajority’s gerrymandered districts have officially been rubber-stamped by Gov. Lee. Nashville’s historic Fifth Congressional District is no more, and Davidson County is now split into three separate congressional districts with downtown and north Nashville drawn into the district of controversial Rep. Mark Green, much of the eastern part of the county drawn into the district of Rep. John Rose, and the southern part of the county remaining in the now-open Fifth district. I understand that legal challenges are likely forthcoming.
The Comptroller’s office has created an online dashboard with a map that provides voters the ability to find out your new congressional, state house and senate, council and school board districts.
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JUDICIARY
The state legislature recently confirmed the appointments of Sarah Keeton Campbell to the Tennessee Supreme Court and John W. Campbell, Sr. to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals – Western Section.
HONORED
Recently, I had the privilege of presenting the family of Mark Lenz with House Joint Resolution 8002 at TCAT-Nashville where Mr. Lenz served as president for eleven years before his untimely passing. Mark and his energetic style of leadership and friendship will be missed by all.
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JRC LEGISLATION
The state legislature’s bill filing deadline was February 2nd. My legislative package this year includes a continued focus on mental and behavioral health care, education, affordable housing, infrastructure, and bail reform. While I have cosponsored cannabis legalization legislation in the past, this is the first year I introduced my own bill. It is modeled after medical marijuana legislation that former Rep. Sherry Jones introduced for several years, and this is why I named it in her honor. At some point in the near future, cannabis will finally be legalized in Tennessee, and it will be because of the advocacy and work that Rep. Jones did years before anyone else.
Given the recent attempts by some to whitewash history in our public schools and the alarming rise in anti-Semitism across our country, I introduced a bill requiring public schools to provide instruction regarding the Holocaust.
For over four years, I worked to pass an anti-lunch shaming bill to address student hunger and bullying in our public schools. Last year, I successfully navigated the bill through the House education committees until it reached the Finance committee where a member of GOP leadership attached an amendment for the purpose of creating a fiscal note and killing it. This year I decided to take a new approach and introduce legislation making all school-based meals free to every child. We have been providing free textbooks to students for over sixty years in Tennessee. It is past time for us to feed every student for free. Given that hunger is an adverse childhood experience affecting one of every six children in Tennessee and a proven factor in educational performance, we have a tremendous opportunity to substantively improve children’s lives and educational outcomes with this legislation.
Other new bills on which I am working this session include the “Community Gardening Act” introduced with Sen. Jeff Yarbro and the “start school later” bill with Sen. Brenda Gilmore. I will be attempting to move the latter bill through the education subcommittee in the next week. Our legislation would require high schools to begin classroom instruction no earlier than 8:30am and middle schools no earlier than 8:00am. While these times may appear random, I can assure you that this legislation is heavily rooted in science. The following organizations are among those that specifically endorse and recommend our legislation’s specific start times and/or acknowledge the adverse impact of sleep deprivation and too-early school start times on students’ educational performance, as well as their mental health and well-being: National Education Association (2011); American Academy of Pediatrics (2014); American Psychological Association (2014); National Association of School Nurses (2014); American Thoracic Society (2015); Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (2015); American Medical Association (2016); National PTA (2017); Society of Behavioral Medicine (2017); and, U.S. Surgeon General (2021).
I expect to receive concerns about logistical hurdles and/or the costs of my legislation, and I openly acknowledge them. However, I would note that our state has ample money to solve any logistical problems, cover costs, and accomplish many of the things about which we often speak. The question is what are we going to prioritize as a state? I would argue that the issues on which I am focused should be at the top of the list, in one form or another.
Fund facts:
-Unspent total general fund revenues and reserves (ref: State Budget FY22-23, p. A-10): $23,511,308,860. $15,936,464,600 of this sum is recurring. Over $6B of this is sitting in the education fund.
-Rainy Day Fund Balance (as of 6/30/22): $1.55 billion. Gov. Lee says he is increasing this to $1.6 billion in his proposed budget.
-From August to December of this fiscal year, the state over-collected $1.625 billion. This is an ongoing trend.
Lest someone accuse me of being a “tax and spend liberal,” I introduced two bills to cut taxes. One bill would decrease our state sales and use tax rate by one percent (from 7% to 6%), and the other would make all fruits and vegetables sales tax-free. My thinking is that if our state’s leadership wants to continue sitting on money and refusing to invest in data-supported and scientifically-proven ways to address the needs of our state, then we should see if they are willing to let Tennessee taxpayers keep more of their money. You will probably not be surprised to learn that they already effectively killed both of these tax cut proposals without so much as a committee hearing in either house.
MEANWHILE
The state legislature is once again flooded with eyebrow-raising legislation that is attracting national headlines. Every year brings a slew of new bills containing solutions looking for a problem. The same bills pop up in state legislatures across the country. The simultaneous surfacing of bad ideas is, of course, no coincidence and requires little to no effort on the part of willing legislators. Having been heavily polled and focus-grouped by national organizations, these boilerplate bills are delivered pre-packaged to my colleagues, complete with talking points, legal summaries, press releases, and the whole works from national organizations. Recent examples include bills about critical race theory, “constitutional carry,” the “bathroom bill,” and multiple variations on the privatization of public education. This year includes more bills to limit women’s reproductive health care rights in anticipation of the impending Supreme Court decision, multiple book bans, and a wide array of discriminatory legislation.
Please follow Gov. Bill Lee, Rep. Mark White and others' efforts with regards to education closely. The legislation that we have seen thus far is concerning, and Lee will be releasing his new education funding formula this Thursday. Your voice and opinions matter, so please communicate with me and my colleagues regularly and let us know where you stand on legislation.
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IN THE NEWS
WKRN, Jan. 20, 2022, by: Valencia Wicker – Tennessee lawmaker proposes bill named after Kyle Rittenhouse
WKRN, Jan. 21, 2022, by: Gerald Harris - Tennessee lawmaker proposes later school start times, free meals for students
Tennessee Lookout, Jan. 25, 2022, by: Anita Wadhwani – In rare show of bipartisanship, 34 TN lawmakers slam TWRA plans to clearcut
NewsChannel5, Jan. 27, 2022, by: Hannah McDonald - Tennessee considering later wakeup call for middle and high school students
Tennessee Lookout, Feb. 1, 2022, by: Sam Stockard - Zachary bill would complement federal health care vaccine rules
Congratulation, Peks!
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