February 20, 2004 

For more details on bills, visit the legislative website at http://www.legislature.state.tn.us.

Option Taken: Saving TennCare by Working Together to Fix it

NASHVILLE-This week on Nashville's Capitol Hill, the current governor presented before a Joint Convention of the Senate and House his concept of how TennCare can be saved by working together to fix it, adopting some ideas long advocated by legislators since the problem-plagued program was first proposed in 1993 prior to its implementation by executive order on Jan. 1, 1994. For years, Republicans have advocated for an effective TennCare fraud unit to help rein in the death-spiral costs of the problem-plagued program. One Republican-sponsored bill in 1995 would have designated the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as the state fraud control unit to investigate criminal fraud in the program. That bill went nowhere. Only now, years later, does it look like the state will finally see an effective fraud prevention effort - a decade after the program began. The current governor proposed in his TennCare address the creation of an independent fraud control unit via a new independent law enforcement unit tasked to aggressively pursue fraud in the TennCare program.

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Abortion Resolution Gets Hearing

The Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee started working through bills and resolutions on its calendar Tuesday of this week after wrapping up in its third meeting in a row a presentation on additional details from the administration about the governor's budget proposal as announced in the State of the State Address on Feb. 2. Senate Joint Resolution 127 by Senator David Fowler (R-Signal Mountain) proposes to add to the state constitution the following language: "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or the funding thereof."

SJR 127 would allow the people a voice on whether to change the state constitution in the next gubernatorial election in November 2006 using the same process through which a lottery prohibition was removed in a statewide yes-no referendum of the people in November 2002. The measure would have to receive majority approval from both houses of the General Assembly this year and then be approved by two-thirds of the Senate and two-thirds of the House of Representatives in the next (104th) General Assembly during 2005-2006 before the issue could be put to the people.

The resolution comes in response to the state Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood vs. Sundquist in September 2000 in which the court ruled that the state constitution provides a greater right to privacy than the federal constitution and applied a strict scrutiny standard.

As it came time for committee members to vote the Fowler Resolution up or down, a request was made as the clock ran out on committee time to have the state Attorney General speak on SJR 127. Thus, another delay as the measure was put off a week. The matter was deferred and it is now set to be heard first on calendar next week after a presentation by the state Attorney General.

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Senator Norris Recognized by Educators

Senator Mark Norris (R-Collierville) received the Tennessee School Boards Association Legislative Award in Nashville on February 17.

Each year, during its Day-on-the-Hill, TSBA recognizes a legislator who has made outstanding contributions to public education in Tennessee or has established a record of support for school board goals. Norris represents Shelby, Tipton, Lauderdale and Dyer Counties in the General Assembly. He was accompanied by Superintendents and School Board members from each county as the award was presented by Shelby County School Board member, Ron Lollar. Lollar praised Norris for his efforts to increase funding for public education in the state. Norris was elected to the State Senate in 2000 after serving as a Shelby County Commissioner. He was chairman of Shelby County's Education Committee and is also a recipient of the PTA's Lifetime Membership Award. Norris passed legislation this session making it possible for school districts to crack down on non-resident student enrollees. The measure could save Shelby County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. He also fought for reimbursement of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid Administrative Claim funds due but unpaid to school districts across the state. "I've done nothing more nor less than every elected official who believes in public education and cares about our children, the future of this state and the nation," said Norris to the crowd of more than 400 gathered at the Sheraton for the day-long convention.

Previous Legislative Award winners include Senate Republican Leader Ben Atchley, Ned McWherter, Leonard Dunavant and Tom Leatherwood.

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Sen. Atchley Recognized by PTA & TSEA

for Support of Education, Employees

Senate Republican Leader Ben Atchley (R-Knoxville) received two prestigious awards on Tuesday, recognizing his many contributions to the state of Tennessee in support of education and in support of state employees. The Tennessee Parent Teacher Association (PTA) named Senator Atchley its Outstanding Legislator of the Year for 2003-2004. This recognition marks a repeat performance for the veteran lawmaker who was the 2000 PTA award-winner as well. The Knox County Chapter and the University of Tennessee Chapter of the Tennessee State Employees Association (TSEA) jointly presented Senator Atchley with the TSEA Statesman Award for 2004. Senator Atchley serves on the Senate Education Committee, on the Council on Pensions and Insurance, and on the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. He was a sponsor of the Education Improvement Act and has long fought for quality education for all Tennesseans and to do more for state employees in the way of benefits and compensation. The senior statesman from Knoxville has announced that he is retiring from the Senate at the conclusion of this General Assembly.

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Bills, Bills, Bills

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All things considered: After action this week, the Senate has 3,469 Senate bills filed as of 10:35 a.m. on Thursday (February 19), while the House has 3,560 bills. Resolutions: Senate Joint Resolutions now number up to 761; HJRs 893; SRs 129; and HRs 265. The Senate has used 62 legislative days with the House having used 55 days. Article II, Section 23 of the state Constitution provides for 90 paid regular legislative session days for every two-year-long General Assembly. The Senate and House reconvene on Monday at 5 p.m.

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Senate Floor Actions

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SB 2153 by Senator Micheal Williams (R-Maynardville) passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Wednesday to authorize juvenile court judges to request records from a telecommunications service provider concerning a missing child about whom a missing child order has been issued by that judge and to require the service provider to supply the requested telephone records without charge.

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SB 2275 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate to permit the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as well as the governor, to request investigative records from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and to request that the TBI conduct background investigations on potential appointees.

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SB 2912 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Wednesday to allow non-teacher employees to be hired for periods longer than one year at a time.

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SB 348 passed the Senate after amendments by a 26-3 vote to allow the continuation of certain uses of structures, and on- and off-site signs not in conformance with local government zoning. The bill was amended to exempt home rule counties and to allow them to opt in if they wished.

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SB 2832 by Senator Fowler passed through unanimous consent of the Senate to limit a municipality from reimbursing or being reimbursed for garbage and refuse collection overpayments or underpayments after a period of 36 months has elapsed from the date the customer was notified of the underpayment or overpayment. Currently, there is no clock on closing out this particular potential liability in the books.

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Selected Senate Committee Actions

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Senate State and Local Government Committee:

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SB 2415 by Senator Atchley passed out of Senate State and Local Government Committee to authorize industrial development corporations to prepare economic impact plans for dedicated areas, upon approval of a governing municipality, and to permit future additional tax revenues from such areas, above that amount regularly levied by all entities presently taxing the area, to be used for industrial development corporation purposes. The bill is permissive and allows incremental increases.

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Senate Commerce, Labor and Agriculture Committee:

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The Senate Commerce Committee continued its hearings on the condition of Workers' Compensation in Tennessee. A few bills were heard by the committee.

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SB 2150 by Senator Atchley passed out of Senate Commerce Committee to revise the nonforfeiture requirements for individual deferred annuities and to create a formula tied to an index for establishing minimum nonforfeiture amounts on paid-up annuity, cash surrender or death benefits available under an annuity contract instead of setting a fixed statutory rate of interest.

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SB 2244 by Senator Fowler passed out of Senate Commerce Committee to create a new violation of the Consumer Protection Act for those who make a false representation as a licensed contractor or home improvement contractor when the person is not so licensed and to impose personal liability upon individuals who make such representations even though they might otherwise have limited liability because incorporated.

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SB 2682 passed out of Senate Commerce Committee to reduce the time period that a garagekeeper or a towing firm must wait before enforcing a lien on a vehicle in its possession from 60 days to 30 days.

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SB 2668, as amended, passed out of Senate Commerce Committee to require insurers of workers' compensation to file the multiplier and supporting information with the Commissioner of Commerce and Insurance at least 30 days before the proposed effective date. Present law requires such filing within 15 days of implementation. This bill would also authorize the commissioner to establish a natural catastrophic disaster property insurance pool to provide full coverage to residential and commercial property owners who are unable to obtain insurance because of widespread cancellation due to natural catastrophic disaster. The commissioner is directed to develop a method to ensure that the premiums for this coverage would be reasonable. The commissioner is directed to present a written proposal for the natural catastrophic disaster property insurance pool to the General Assembly by February 1, 2005.

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Senate Judiciary Committee:

SB 2300 by Senator Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to require employers to notify the Department of Children's Services and court clerk if the employer files bankruptcy or ceases to operate as a business and to require that income assignment not be affected by bankruptcy or cessation of business. The filing would include the names of employees subject to income assignment and the employees' last known address and address of their new employer or source of income, if known.

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SB 2305 by Senator McNally passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to create a Class A misdemeanor for a person who knowingly issues, sells or manufactures a false academic degree and to create a Class C misdemeanor for an individual who knowingly uses or claims to have false academic degree to obtain employment, promotion in employment or admission to institution of higher learning.

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Senate General Welfare, Health, and Human Resources Committee: SB 2852 by Senator Curtis Person (R-Memphis) passed out of Senate General Welfare to clarify reasonable charges for medical records provided to a patient by a hospital by deleting the words "handling" and "retrieval" in the description of the fees. The bill removes a conflict between a state statute and federal HIPAA privacy regulations and does not change the fee schedule or alter any contracts.