Michael Grider introduces the panel

(UPDATE: Videos from Michael Grider)

We attended yesterday's legislative panel discussion hosted by the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists. Legislators from East Tennessee discussed the upcoming session and the recently passed "Race to the Top" education bill.

Area legislators on the panel were Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville), Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), Sen. Doug Overbey (R-Maryville), Rep. Harry Brooks (R-Knoxville), Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville), Rep. Ryan Haynes (R-Knoxville), and Rep. Harry Tindell (D-Knoxville). WATE's Gene Patterson was the moderator, and Michael Grider of WVLT was the ETSPJ host. Turnout was good, with approx. 30 attendees in the audience.

Overall, education will once again be a top priority in the upcoming legislative session, with the "Race to the Top Bill" being the signature legislation that was already passed in a special session. With the budget situation, there won't be money for many other initiatives. We may see some legislation on open government and transparency, possibly campaign finance in light of the recent Supreme Court decision, and there appears to be a ticking time bomb with more TennCare cuts looming. There was no discussion of flagship conservative issues such as guns and abortion, but the deficit and growth of the federal government were frequently mentioned as areas of concern as states are struggling.

Following are some highlights of the panel discussion...

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The first topic of discussion was the Race to the Top legislation. Rep. Brooks said that the motivation may have been federal grant dollars, but the policy changes are very significant. The state will now be able to use testing data for teacher evaluation, and appropriations for higher education will be based on performance in addition to enrollment.

When asked about a recent newspaper editorial that said the general assembly was "riding the backs of teachers up the hill in the race to the top" and whether that was a fair characterization, Rep. Brooks said that teachers were part of the team that put the legislation together. Lt. Gov. Ramsey said that prior to this legislation the law didn't allow use of test scores for teacher evaluation, and "in the end teachers realized that test scores are a tool that can be used to improve."

Mr. Patterson asked what happens if the state doesn't get the federal grant money for the program. Sen. Overbey said that this concern came up in the finance committee, as well as questions about what happens after the money runs out if the grant is awarded. He said that legislators got assurances from the administration that "we weren't building a deficit into the budget."

Rep. Haynes added that he wouldn't have voted for the bill if "we were just chasing after federal dollars." Instead, he said it was good policy and would "cultivate higher standards."

Rep. Tindell said that every governor tries to reform education, but we don't have money in the state budget right now. This is non-state funded reform. He went on to say that everyone thought Pre-K would be Gov. Bredesen's legacy but he has "firmly cemented his legacy as a reformer, with accountability and process improvement, and that value scores that we have are going to help teachers improve and that's going to help students to succeed." He said the improvements will take time, but if we get the federal grants it will "supercharge our efforts" in the areas of staff development and helping failing schools.

Rep. Dunn noted that we are talking about federal dollars, but that in his mind "those federal dollars don't exist. It's all deficit spending, it's all being borrowed from the Chinese." He's concerned that this will "destroy our finances" and it won't matter how well educated we are, and that as legislators they should be thinking about how to get that message to Washington.

Regarding the bill's provisions for higher education, Rep. Brooks said that we need to change the culture in Tennessee from "everyone needs to go to college" to "all children need post-secondary training." He said that our technology centers are doing a "phenomenal job" and that the bill would put more emphasis on that type of post-secondary education.

Rep. Brooks fielded a question from retired U.T. professor Dorothy Bowles regarding a provision in the bill that tasks the Tennessee Higher Education Commission with overhauling articulation agreements between community colleges and universities to allow the transfer of more credits. Rep. Brooks said that if a class taught at a community college in Chattanooga was not good enough to transfer the credits to U.T. then either the class "over there" needs to be fixed or there's "something wrong with the attitude over here." At any rate, Rep. Brooks said the bill requires involvement and input from faculty at all affected institutions.

Moving on to campaign finance, Mr. Patterson asked the panel about the recent Supreme Court decision on corporate political spending. Lt. Gov. Ramsey said that decision means independent expenditures can come from corporations and unions, but in Tennessee they still cannot contribute directly to campaigns, parties, PACs or caucuses. He said that "artificial limits" cause candidates to spend too much time fundraising and that instead we need full disclosure, noting that in the internet age there's no reason why all political contributions can't be reported instantly and then "let the public decide whether that's right or wrong."

Sen. Overbey said that he hasn't read the opinion yet and he wants to study it to understand how a corporation, which is a "legal fiction" as opposed to a "natural person" can have personal rights. He said he's interested in how the opinion "works through layers of jurisprudence and constitutional theory" to arrive at the conclusion that corporations have individual First Amendment rights.

Regarding a question about budget problems and how they affect state worker pay and pensions, Rep. Tindell noted that state budgets are "feast or famine" and that state workers are used to not getting raises from time to time. He said that despite high unemployment in the state, the legislature has concentrated on keeping people on the payroll and as a result we have not had the high number of layoffs seen in other states. He said that one of the House Democrats' top priorities is to protect employees and education and "keep them whole" until things improve and we can catch up.

As a follow up, Mr. Patterson asked Sen. Burchett if the state budget shortfall was as bad as people say. Sen. Burchett said "it's as bad as they say or possibly worse," noting that we've had 19 straight months of declining revenues and he doesn't see it getting any better. He said we're "down to priorities," and that he doesn't want to see us "release any criminals" and doesn't want to cut services for the mentally ill.

Next up, Mr. Patterson asked about health care reform. Lt. Gov. Ramsey said regarding the current bill in Congress that he "hopes it doesn't pass." He said the Medicaid expansion in the U.S. House bill would cost Tennessee $1.2 billion over the next three years, and the Senate version would cost the state $800 million, noting that the "Governor himself called it the 'mother of all unfunded mandates.'" He said "we can't print money in Tennessee like they do in Washington" to pay for it, and that "the worst thing we could do is raise taxes in this economic environment, so thank goodness it doesn't look like it's going to pass in its current form because it would be devastating to the State of Tennessee."

Shirley Nash-Pitts from WVLT brought up the issue of the pending regulatory action against Hillcrest West. She said CMS [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] has "not given the administrators the reasons why they are going to close it down Feb. 6th" and that if the state would restore Medicaid [TennCare] funding they wouldn't need the Medicare funding they are about to lose. Sen. Burchett said he has a meeting scheduled for Monday to look in to the issue.

Related to that topic, Sen. Overbey said that health care was going to be a "very serious matter in the 2010 General Assembly." TennCare is proposing some "tough cuts and tough limits," including a $10,000 limit on hospital stays. He said that he doesn't think the seriousness of that has sunk in for most people, and he expects there will be legislation introduced before the bill filing deadline on Thursday.

Another topic of discussion was the open records act, specifically charging for government employee time involved in responding to records requests and another proposal to eliminate publishing public notices in newspapers. Sen. Burchett said the "public is already charged by tax dollars." He said that he and Rep. Dunn have a bill coming up dealing with transparency, and another bill dealing with disclosing the names of people behind LLCs.

Lt. Gov. Ramsey noted that open government is one of his top priorities and that since he became Lt. Gov. and Speaker of the Senate the legislature has expanded their online presence so that now the public can watch streaming video of every session and committee meeting, lookup the status of bills and get automatic updates, and so on. He said he wanted a "website second to none," and that the National Conference of State Legislatures had recently recognized Tennessee for having "the best website of any state legislature in the nation."

Turning to politics, Knox Co. Commissioner Ed Shouse asked about all the open seats coming up in U.S. Congress and the panel's thoughts on whether Republicans might pick up some seats. Democrat Rep. Tindell said the trend is "going the other way" right now and that the national party has "lost the PR battle" but they have time to get their footing back and we'll see what happens in November. He noted that Democrats do not currently have a strong candidate for Wamp's seat, implying that it was safe for Republicans. Regarding Gordon and Tanner, he said Democrats have "an excellent chance of keeping the Tanner seat and the other side has a chance of taking the Gordon seat."

Back to transparency, I asked about job recruitment and site selection deals. Understanding that it's a competitive process, I wondered if it still couldn't be more open, and if there was some way for the public to learn more about the incentives provided and exactly what was in the contracts. Sen. Burchett said that he is working on a bill that would require more transparency for both state and local governments in these situations. He said it would be fairly complex, but it was "frankly something that all of us have questioned in the past." He noted, however, that he expected "blowback from some of the heavy hitters."

Following up on that, Mr. Patterson asked about the need for secrecy during the negotiations. Lt. Gov. Ramsey said there's a "fine line" but you must have some secrecy when you're in a competitive bid. On incentives in general, he said legislators are "very careful not to give incentives that don't pay back." He cited Mississippi "giving away the farm" to Toyota for a plant that's now not going to be built as compared to the incentives we gave Volkswagen, where the sales tax revenue on construction costs alone will pay back all the incentives. He added that the way your recruit business is to have a good business climate to begin with, and then when companies look at energy costs, our workforce and our workforce training efforts, the incentives become less important on the back end. He concluded by praising Gov. Bredesen for his work in this regard.

Also related to jobs and employment, there was a question about the conflict between mountaintop removal and coal mining, which only employs about 400 people in the state, v. our tourism industry. Lt. Gov. Ramsey said that we have a "very well regulated system" right now and nobody really wants mountaintop removal and we're not seeing that in Tennessee. He said it's an "emotional issue," and we must "match good science with what the facts are" to ensure a "dependable energy source in Tennessee and the nation as a whole." He said we have to realize that we have "200 years of coal in the ground" and we can get it out of the ground in a safe way if we regulate it but don't over-regulate it.

Rep. Dunn noted that he is the sponsor of the mountaintop removal bill, and that they are looking at a "ridge top buffer" bill similar to the stream buffer bill passed last year that would allow mining that doesn't impact ridge tops. He said he looks at energy a different way. He would "rather have other countries use up their energy sources before we do," and that by limiting mountaintop removal we not only preserve the mountains but we also "preserve the coal that's there." That way, he said, if we don't come up with technology solutions for alternative energy we would at least still have coal reserves to fall back on.

The final question from Alex Lavidge of Knoxville Overground was about supporting high-tech, high-growth entrepreneurs in the state and promoting programs such as the Tennessee Technology Development Corp. and other initiatives such as TNInvestco. Sen. Overbey said that legislators consider every piece of legislation they look at its impact on business and whether it encourages or discourages business development. He said that education reforms were especially important for high-tech businesses that are looking for a well-trained workforce. He also cited changes to Tennessee's worker compensation laws which were attractive to business, as are some of the state's tort reforms.

Moderator Gene Patterson (center), ETSPJ Program Coordinator Amanda Womac of Hellbender Press (right), and ETSPJ member Megan Venable Smith of UTK (left).