Haslam outlines 2012 legislative agenda
KINGSPORT — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam pitched his 2012 legislative agenda — focused on creating jobs, lowering two taxes, and reforming government employment and education — to members of the Times-News Editorial Board Tuesday.
Haslam’s agenda includes more than 50 non-budget bills, but the Republican governor and former Knoxville mayor pointed out there’s “always a ton of attention” paid to the state budget.
He will submit a spending plan for the coming fiscal year to the legislature on Jan. 30.
“Never once in the seven years I’ve been mayor or the year I have been governor does anyone ever say ‘How did you do?’” Haslam said. “...But that’s kind of what my job is, right, to provide those services at the budgeted level and maybe we figure out a way to save some money.”
Haslam began the meeting by saying he plans to change how the state’s “Fast Track” economic development grants will be doled out.
He proposed Tennessee should have the flexibility to use those grants as cash incentives for businesses to relocate and prepare job sites.
“The certain circumstances would be where the employer has a certain impact on a community,” Haslam said. “In Nashville, a firm offering 100 new jobs ... we would welcome it, but it is not going to make a significant impact on the community. One hundred jobs in a rural Upper East Tennessee town is going to make a lot of difference.”
In education, Haslam said he plans to give local school boards options to eliminate average class size mandates and get rid of teacher salaries based strictly on seniority and training.
“This would allow a district or school ... if they wanted to re-engineer their funding to set priorities, they could do it,” Haslam said of his education plans. “They could attract teachers in certain subjects, like physics. ... In no case would a teacher’s salary go down in this. It would allow a district to increase it. ... The only way to get more pay now is stay another year or get a graduate degree.”
Of Haslam’s government reform initiatives, the biggest appears to be a plan to restructure more than 20 state boards and commissions.
“Tennessee has 200 different boards and commissions overseeing everything from higher education to barbers and cosmetologists,” Haslam said.
He singled out the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, which oversees utilities and communications, as a board with no executive director and four full-time members.
“They make $150,000 each and are political appointments,” Haslam said of the TRA board members. “It would be more effective to have one executive director and five part-time board members paid on a part-time basis.”
Another anticipated tough task will be changing how the majority of state government employees are hired and retained.
About 90 percent of those 40,000 workers are covered by civil service, Haslam said, while the remainder are hired at will.
Haslam stressed the state’s employment registry prevents state government from recruiting good workers, while tenured workers often “bump” better workers from good state jobs.
He also promised a long-term salary survey will compare state workers’ pay with the private sector and other government employees.
“Compensation in state government is no different than in a newspaper or restaurant. ... It’s always an issue...” Haslam said. “I have 22 commissioners running everything from higher education to children’s services. I asked all 22 of them, ‘What’s the most important thing you can do to change state government?’ All 22 came back and said, ‘You have to fix the employment system.’ It’s just too big a deal.”
Haslam also hopes to eventually raise the state inheritance tax exemption from $1 million to $5 million by increasing it this year to $1.25 million to lower the tax burden on family farmers and family business owners.
“People say ‘It’s cheaper to die in Florida.’ ... The truth is ... they take their capital elsewhere and invest in business and create jobs elsewhere when capital is the most important thing we need,” Haslam said.
The governor is also proposing to lower the state portion of the sales tax on food from 5.5 percent to 5.3 percent, with the goal of lowering it to 5 percent in three years.
Local governments will be held harmless and won’t be held responsible to make that revenue up, according to Haslam.
Also in the governor’s legislative package are a series of public safety bills to address tougher sentencing for gang-related crimes, gun possession by those with prior violent felony convictions, and mandatory jail time for repeat domestic violence offenders.
For more information about Haslam’s legislative package go to www.forward.tn.gov.
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