by Jon Styf
Americans For Prosperity is pushing for more transparency as Tennessee’s legislative session is set to begin.
That transparency request applies to everything from House committee votes on bills to posting bill amendments to government contracts to the process of school of choice statewide.
Tennessee State Director Tori Venable said Monday improvements in transparency can start with the rules for the session.
“The big push right now, hopefully before they adopt their rules, is for them to post the amendments online before they’re voted on, something that doesn’t happen until they are put on in full committee currently,” she said.
Venable noted that, right now, the amendments on key bills often are the key components of a bill and it can often result in misinformation as different members have different paper copies of amendments.
Venable also believes that House committees should have roll call votes on bills, something that happens currently in smaller Senate committees. That way, it is clearer to see how each member feels about a bill.
AFP-Tennessee would also like to see a full repeal of the state’s professional privilege tax, which legislators have been unwinding piece by piece. Last session, physicians and osteopathic physicians were removed from the $400 annual state licensing tax. The remaining professions subject to the tax are lobbyists, attorneys and agents, broker-dealers, and investment advisors.
Venable believes the state should do more to require transparency for government spending as well, particularly in large deals such as the highway toll lanes being pushed by Gov. Bill Lee. She said that, like the $500 million and tax subsidies aimed at a new Tennessee Titans stadium and surrounding district, the state has passed general measures and then all of the details of the deals are decided behind closed doors.
“There’s a lot of questions that need to be asked and I would like them to actually debate it so there’s transparency around it because that certainly hasn’t been the case in the past few years,” Venable said.
She wondered how the private entity would acquire the land, if space limitations would mean that the state could not further expand the interstate in the future and wonders how enforcement would take place, including if that would involve license plate readers.
The conservative group also is pushing for more transparency in the state’s open enrollment process for public schools, making it a statewide option with publicly posted open enrollments dates that occur in the spring before the student would begin at the new school. Currently, open enrollment is only within a district and the dates often come in the fall, nearly a year before enrollment.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter at The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Tori Jones Venable” by Tori Jones Venable. Background Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by Andre Porter. CC BY-SA 3.0.
The right-wing controlled Legislature opposes transparency more than any other Tennessee political group.
SIc ’em, AFP. Maybe it will result in less good bills from dying in committee. The place when good conservative legislation goes to destroyed.
While you’re at it, push for more transparency among the U.S. House Republicans who exacted major concessions from their party as a condition for supporting Kevin McCarthy. The tax-payers need to know what type of concessions that McCarthy made to the Hard Right in order to get his post. The Republicans want to help the very rich to evade their taxes while shifting the burden onto the rest of us!
How about some transparency in your posting. Back up your statement of “The Republicans want to help the very rich to evade their taxes while shifting the burden onto the rest of us!” with facts. Your statement is NOT true.
How about some transparency from AFP-TN regarding their working relationship with Daniel Garza and the Libre Institute pushing for “common ground” on immigration, their co-published op-ed to that effect https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2019/10/24/bipartisanship-immigration-isnt-so-difficult/4085280002/, and their co-sponsored interactive exhibit “Common Ground” in Nashville highlighting amnesty for “DREAMERS” https://thelibreinstitute.org/blog/2019/10/launching-immigration-pop-up-exhibit-reveals-common-ground-on-debate/