June 21, 2005
Thank you, Randy, for inviting me to address you today.
I have been excited and impressed by the Small Business Chamber’s debut here and appreciate your service to commerce and community.
This is the first public address I have given since we adjourned about 3 weeks ago.
When I accepted this invitation to speak last March, I envisioned an opportunity to tell you what I hoped would be accomplished during the first half of the 104th General Assembly.
But the events of May changed all that.
Of course, I continued to champion the cause of small business in Tennessee. Ongoing implementation of the workers’ compensation reforms I helped to pass last year resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of lawsuits filed this year. We estimate savings to Tennessee business in the neighborhood of $68 million through reduced premiums and costs.
Retailers in the audience will likely be glad to know that we delayed implementation of the streamlined sales tax initiative which threatened to impose costly burdens of converting tax collections upon the backs of business owners.
We adopted a sales tax holiday which will take place in August and should be a blessing to families making their back-to-school purchases as well as a boon to business sales.
As the newly appointed Chairman of Transportation and Safety, I was able to reduce some of the regulations on small trucks in intra-state commerce which should ease the burdens of compliance with commercial drivers’ licenses and permits.
We continued to work on the state’s first long range transportation plan and adopted a 3-year program of work for construction and repair of roads and bridges in the state. We authorized over $700 million of construction in the next fiscal year which will strengthen our economy and the businesses that sustain growth.
Yesterday, the governor signed into law the Job Growth Act which allocates $20 million toward job training and statewide broadband technology.
All in all, over 300 new Public Acts within a $26 billion budget adopted without a tax increase.
But the events of May overshadowed much of the progress we made this year.
And what I want to talk with you about today is my concern that, unless we take decisive action without further delay, the events of May and the public corruption which led to those events will continue to overshadow, indeed obstruct, our efforts to strengthen Tennessee in the future.
Unemployment is the highest it has been in this state in 13 years. Within weeks, thousands of Tennesseans without health insurance will strain our ability to provide access to affordable health care. Tax relief, tort reform and inroads against illegal immigration remain to be addressed. Every one of these initiatives affects your business, your families and your future. And every one of these initiatives is threatened by the clouds of uncertainty which shroud our state capital in the storm we call Tennessee Waltz.
We passed an ethics bill this year. It dominated much of the session. It diverted much of our attention from the fact that nothing we adopted addressed nor prevented the chicanery taking place around us.
Machiavelli said, “ Just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.” At the end of the day, however, we cannot legislate morality or common decency. But we can legislate safeguards against that which threatens to pervert morality and common decency.
In the waning hours of this session, we passed a bill calling for the appointment of a special committee to recommend additional measures to be taken. I have asked the Republican Leader and the Speaker of the Senate to be appointed to that committee. No action has been taken. We have sitting members of the House and Senate who have been indicted for bribery and extortion. No action has been taken.
Yesterday, the governor stated that he wants to appoint a citizens’ panel to recommend what needs to be done and to help him decide whether to call a special session of the legislature to do something.
As a citizen-legislator, I’d like to offer the governor a little help of my own. Governor Bredesen, this is no time to defer. Governor, call a special session.
It is time for Tennessee to establish an independent ethics commission. In so doing, we would join the ranks of 39 other states which have taken similar steps to maintain confidence in the institutions of government. Hawaii was the first back in 1968. Last year, that commission handled over 1,200 requests for advisory opinions as well as over 180 ethics complaints (including 24 sworn, notarized charges filed by individuals or organizations.)
The objectives are clear:
1. To develop an independent entity with the authority to recommend reprimand, suspension or removal of anyone in any branch of state government found to be in violation of policies, standards, rules, the laws of the State of Tennessee, or the laws of the United States of America.
2. To restore trust in Tennessee and faith that elected, as well as appointed, officials adhere to standards of ethical conduct that are beyond reproach.
3. To remove the double-standard whereby lawmakers abuse their elected position while maintaining pay, insurance and other benefits.
Time is fleeting. Time is short. The hour grows late. Convene a committee. Call a special session. Create a commission. Complete the task.
Let me close by repeating the sentiments I expressed in the Senate before adjourning last month:
“(W)e endeavor to restore trust in Tennessee that this “citizen legislature” might once again be embraced by the citizenry from whence we come to do the people’s business.
For it is the people’s business, not personal reward, which must always be our first priority. Not until the people are satisfied that each of those who toil in this Chamber put service before self will the sacrifice we make here be deemed worthy of our office and our oath.”
Thank you.
