- Once again we passed a fiscally responsible, balanced budget with no new taxes. It is a “family budget” for all Tennesseans where we live within our means. We kept our belt tight, but still funded those essential items we need to keep our state moving forward. We stood firm with the governor to balance the books with no new taxes, matched recurring expenses with recurring revenue and avoided any deficit. ($27.5 billion dollar budget of which $13.6 billion is state dollars.)
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- Instituted sweeping changes in our lottery scholarship program which will expand educational opportunities for our children, including adjusting the required GPA to allow more students to retain their scholarships, putting in place an “Energy Efficient Schools Initiative” and instituting a “Helping Heroes” provision to assist Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 individuals will have expanded educational opportunities from these changes.
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- Passed the “Long Term Care Community Choices Act of 2008” which will implement and expand the choices our elderly have for home and community-based care. This includes providing new or additional in-home services such as home-delivered meals, homemaker services and personal care, and to reduce the waiting list for these services under an Options program, or to offer transportation services or assistance to non-Medicaid eligible individuals, all to be provided under an integrated long term care program.
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- Passed the “Competitive Cable and Video Services Act.” This bill creates a climate for competition that will level the playing field for companies wanting to provide the best services in television and Internet to the people of Tennessee. More competition means better services and faster deployment of services to areas that are currently underserved.
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- Invested $67 million in new dollars for our K-12 schools which fully funds the BEP bringing our total investment up to $3.49 billion in the coming fiscal year. It is estimated that Tipton County will receive $54,315,000 for its share of the BEP which is an increase of over $1,000,000 dollars.
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- Protected our investment in Pre-K classrooms by providing an additional $3 million to fund the cost of living increases for current Pre-K classrooms with the total investment in Pre-K now standing at $83 million which funds over 934 classrooms statewide. I deeply regret that the national economic downturn was so dramatic that we could not invest an additional $25 million dollars in Tennessee’s Pre-K program and look forward to making that investment soon.
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- Retained our August sales tax holiday which allows families to buy, among other things, school items without paying sales tax and provided additional property tax relief for the disabled with low incomes; (Sales tax holiday saves taxpayers approximately $10 million dollars.)
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- The House passed tough illegal immigration legislation prohibiting any state agency from issuing any state document including, but not limited to, voter identification cards, driver licenses, nondriver identification cards, and birth certificates, to anyone not lawfully in the United States and prohibited postsecondary education benefits to individuals not lawfully in the United States. The Senate did not act on this.
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- We passed a sweeping crime package that will help protect our citizens and punish criminals. This package includes:
Combated “Copper Theft Crime” by putting in place legislation designed to regulate the buying and selling of scrap metal and to provide criminal penalties and civil forfeitures for those who violate the act.
Passed the “Josh Osburne Law” making starvation and dehydration clearly fall under our Child Abuse Laws.
Helped protect law enforcement officers and the public by making it an offense to intentionally display in public an imitation firearm in a threatening manner.
Expanded the “Crooks with Guns” law by making it a class E felony for any felon to unlawfully possess a handgun.
Passed legislation to crack down on gang activity in schools.
Expanded offense of harassment to include text messaging and fax transmissions.
Prohibited work release eligibility for any person convicted of a sexual offense or violent sexual offense.
Required a person convicted of aggravated rape of a child to comply with sexual offender registration, verification, and tracking requirements for life and report on a quarterly basis to their designated law enforcement agency.
Required any person who is registered as a sexual offender or violent sexual offender to disclose to the sexual offender registry any email address, instant message, chat, or other Internet communication name or identity that the registrant uses or intends to use. Any change in his or her email address, instant message, chat, or other Internet communication name or identity that the registrant uses or intends to use must be reported in three business days electronically or in person.
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- Increased oversight of mortgage lenders by establishing additional educational training, requiring criminal background checks and allowing the Department of Commerce and Insurance to join the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System.
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- Increased disclosures required to be made by proprietary schools to students. This is designed to provide prospective students with information related to transferability of credit, graduation rates, job placement rates and tuition costs.
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- Enacted legislation designed to help protect college students from predatory lending practices by restricting some credit card solicitations on college campuses.
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- Increased penalties for those who illegally park in handicapped spaces.
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- Passed medical malpractice reform legislation designed to reduce frivolous lawsuits.
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- Fire Safe Cigarettes---Enacted legislation that would allow only fire safe-cigarettes to be sold in Tennessee. These are cigarettes made to be self extinguishing. Goes into effect January 1, 2010.
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- Enacted Voter Confidence legislation which will require a paper record of all votes cast in Tennessee elections. Effective by the 2010 general elections.
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- Expanded the ability of small businesses to obtain health insurance coverage for their employees by increasing the number of employees allowed to fit under the definition of “small employer” and by allowing other small employers to enter into health group cooperatives.
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- Updated portions of the state’s open records law.
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- Protected the state against economic downturns by retaining $750 million in our state rainy day fund. This is our savings account for the taxpayers. These funds may well be needed next year to close the books if the economic downturn continues as expected.
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- Helped retain and attract jobs to Tennessee by providing a cash infusion to the Fast Track Program in the Department of Economic and Community Development.
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- It is estimated that Haywood County will receive $15,588,000 for its share of the BEP.
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