Week of March 17 through March 20, 2008...
Veterans Home Board: The Senate State and Local Government Committee approved legislation this week to expand the board of the State Veterans Nursing Homes. The bill aims to give the panel more health care expertise and provide accountability to the General Assembly. SB3919 increases committee membership from ten to thirteen by adding citizens with practical clinical and administrative experience in nursing homes. The bill also builds in reporting and accountability requirements to the Legislature's Joint Select Committee on Veterans Affairs. It requires the board to report annually regarding issues and recommendations to improve state veterans nursing homes and to notify lawmakers of potential problems.
Lottery Excess Fund Subcommittee, reviewing proposals for disbursing excess lottery funds, met this week and recommended several bills for passage to the full Senate Education Committee. There is 460-million dollars in the lottery reserve account, of which 50-million dollars must be kept in savings under current law. Recommendations include:
The Senate Education Committee approved legislation last year that would distribute at least 100-million dollars of the surplus directly to school districts for use in K-12 construction or renovation. That bill will be considered again after it was moved from the Senate Finance Committee to the Senate Education Committee by action in the full Senate this week so that it can be considered in unison with the other proposals. The school building bill is designed to help local governments keep up with student enrollment growth and needed improvements.
Tennessee's constitution limits expenditure of lottery revenues to college scholarships, expansion of new pre-kindergarten (pre-K) and after school programs, and capital improvements for major improvements or building K-12 schools. The only aspect of the 2002 constitutional amendment creating the Tennessee Education Lottery yet to be enacted by legislation is granting the use of excess lottery reserves for new capital outlay projects for Tennessee's K-12 educational facilities.
Streamlining and modernization of local governments' property tax collection: Legislation that would bring Tennessee's local governments into the 21st century for payment of property taxes was unanimously approved by the full Senate this week. The bill modernizes the system of payment and gives local governing bodies the authority to accept partial payment of property taxes. The bill allows the payments to be accepted electronically by using electronic fund transfers, preauthorized bank payments, wire transfers, Automatic Clearing House (ACH) credits, or other methods of electronic payment. It also allows the county trustees to accept partial payment of property taxes for the current tax year, which would be held in a designated revenue account. In order to opt into the proposed law, it must be approved by the local county governing body by two-thirds vote.
Child protection bill: Tennessee may soon require convicted sex offenders to provide email addresses and screen names to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). Legislation unanimously passed in the Senate would crack down on convicted sex offenders and better protect children online. There are 600,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. An estimated 150,000 of these offenders have been "lost" in the system. The legislation, SB2594, would require convicted sex offenders to provide email addresses, chat names, instant message screen names, and any other online electronic communications information to the TBI as part of their routine and annual information collection requirements. Studies show teens are willing to meet with strangers, with 16 percent of them considering meeting someone they have talked to online. Eight percent have actually met someone they only "knew" from online chats.
Camera-generated traffic tickets: Legislation was approved unanimously by the Senate this week to provide that operators of motor vehicles who receive a ticket from the use of a "red light camera" would be given ample notice. This legislation, SB3258, would provide the owners the opportunity to have a second thirty-day notice that the fine on the ticket is due before any additional fines could be levied.
In separate action this week, a measure was approved in the Senate Transportation Committee of legislation that provides that local governments cannot speed up the timing of the amber light at intersections for the purpose of increasing profits from the tickets. The bill follows a case in Chattanooga where the timing was set at a quicker pace. After reviewing the timing of the light, a local judge dismissed 176 traffic violations, providing refunds to 150 who paid the fine. The usual rate of the amber light before changing to red is three seconds.
Last year, the General Assembly approved legislation to make traffic violations assessed through the camera lights a non-moving violation. Consequently, these tickets are not reported for insurance purposes.
National Guard AWOL: Legislation, SB2797, strengthening penalties against Tennessee National Guardsmen who do not show up for guard duty was approved by the full Senate this week.
Water quality: The full Senate has approved legislation, SB2979, that would provide greater accuracy in reporting water quality on the Pigeon River. The move was made to measure more accurately the amount of industrial pollution that is flowing into Tennessee from the Blue Ridge Paper Mill in North Carolina. The mill, or its predecessor (Champion Paper Mill), has been considered to be a primary source of dioxin and particulate matter discharged into the Pigeon River.
Wheel clamping in parking lots: the full Senate approved legislation, SB3487, which would give municipalities the authority to set fees and notices for a practice used by private parking lots to "clamp" ("boot") the wheels of vehicles, if they overstay their time (overnight, for example). The practice is often accompanied by an excessive fee of up to 200 dollars to unlock the wheels.