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Rep. Jim Hackworth - House District 33
IMMEDIATE RELEASE June
9, 2010
House Ends 106th General
Assembly On High Note With Unanimous Vote On Values Based Budget
Victories include restoring
funds for family protection
services & expansion of job creation programs
NASHVILLE (June 9)
– Having passed a budget plan that leaves over $600 million in
Tennessee’s rainy day fund while funding programs to reduce infant
mortality, expand job creation, and improve our education system,
State Representative Jim Hackworth (D-Clinton) and members of the
Tennessee House of Representatives completed their work for the 106th
General Assembly.
“When we began in early
2009, there were more questions than answers when it came to issues like
our state’s economy,” said Hackworth. “While there is still
plenty of work to be done, I believe the people of Tennessee can take
heart that their state government has continued to pass balanced budgets
with appropriate spending cuts, over $600 million in reserves, and no
new taxes.”
“This year has been one of
the toughest in our legislature’s history, but it has also been a year
when Tennesseans got their best chance to see what issues matter most to
their legislators,” said Hackworth. “I believe that by
passing legislation to help create jobs, improve our schools, and
protect our citizens, we have shown that our values are the values of
everyday Tennesseans.”
Highlights
of the 106th Tennessee General Assembly include:
Balanced budgets with appropriate cuts and funds for a rainy day:
For three years, Tennessee has been fighting an uphill battle to
regain positive economic growth. With the financial scandals of
Wall Street in 2007, and the collapse of the housing market in 2008, the
American economy has been in a tumultuous slump.
For many states, the
financial crisis has meant massive cuts of employees and epic reductions
in services to try and create balanced budgets. However, thanks to
the forward thinking of previous General Assemblies and Governor Phil
Bredesen, Tennessee has been able to weather the recent financial
crisis with responsible spending cuts and help from Tennessee’s Rainy
Day Fund.
In 2010, Tennessee began
to see positive financial growth for the first time in nearly two years.
To help stimulate continued positive growth, the House of
Representatives passed a comprehensive budget plan that makes
appropriate spending cuts, leaves over $600 million in the state’s Rainy
Day Fund and does this with no new taxes on its citizens.
This smart, responsible,
fiscally conservative budget plan will allow Tennessee’s economy to
continue to recover, while Tennesseans can have peace of mind knowing
that their state is prepared for the future.
Small Business
Development and Job Creation Opportunities: In 2009, the
Tennessee General Assembly welcomed Hemlock Semiconductor and Wacker
Chemie AG to the Volunteer State. These two companies, along with
Volkswagen in Chattanooga, have brought the promise of thousands of new
jobs to Tennessee.
This year, recognizing
that small businesses are the backbone of Tennessee’s economy, the state
House of Representatives proposed the creation of a program to help
small businesses expand and create new job opportunities. Known as
the Small Business Opportunity Fund, the program will work in
combination with private investment to offer small businesses financial
assistance to expand and create new jobs within the company.
Better Teachers,
Better Schools, Better Futures: In January, Governor Bredesen
called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly on the issue
of education. The purpose of the special session was for the House
and Senate to adopt new legislation that would put Tennessee in a
position to receive new federal dollars to improve K-12 schools across
the state.
The “Race to the Top”
program required states to implement education-reform measures that
promote the development of “great teachers and leaders.” These
reforms included the adoption of teacher evaluations that use multiple
measures that take into account student growth and learning data in
assessing a teacher’s success.
Led in the House by
Representative Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory), the Legislature passed
the necessary reforms and, in March, Tennessee and Delaware became the
first two states approved under the “Race to the Top” guidelines.
This allowed Tennessee to receive nearly $500 million in new education
funding, with half of the funds split proportionally between individual
school districts in all 95 counties.
Just as they did last
year, the House also led the charge to protect Tennessee’s
Pre-Kindergarten funding from eventual termination by insisting that any
budget passed by the Legislature keep Pre-K funds in place. The
state would be required to continue paying for the program in future
years and not be subject to cuts based on limited resources.
College
Opportunities for Those Who Want It: This year the House made it
a priority to expand higher education opportunities throughout the
state. There is no better example of this than in the Community
College and Technical Schools funding added in this year’s final budget
proposal.
Earlier in the year,
during a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly that focused
on education, the House and Senate passed the “Complete College
Tennessee Act.” The legislation required that community colleges
become the centerpiece of Tennessee’s strategy to offer better higher
education opportunities to its citizens. This strategy included
expanding common programs and courses as well as promoting a common
level of consistency and quality across the two-year college system.
To continue moving toward
a more beneficial higher education system for Tennesseans, the House
recommended assigning $100 million in contingent federal funds to
community colleges across the state. That recommendation was later
expanded to include $20 million in additional funds for high priority
technical schools. The funding would go to renovate and expand
campuses across Tennessee in order for more two-year colleges to be able
to support larger student populations and offer more classes.
Taking Care of
Tennessee’s Golden Generation: For the past three years, the
House has been working to help seniors in Tennessee have better choices
and protections when it comes to their golden years.
In 2008 the Legislature
passed the “Long-Term Care Community Choices Act,” a bill that laid the
foundation for Tennessee’s seniors to have more choices when it comes to
how they spend their golden years. Last year the House passed the
second phase of long-term care reform called the “Adult Home Care Act of
2009.” This legislation establishes standards of practice and
review for a new kind of residential alternative for high risk seniors.
This year, the Legislature
continued its work to help seniors by passing the “Elderly and Disabled
Adults Protection Act.” Under this law, sponsored by State
Representative Dennis Ferguson (D-Midtown) any potential employees
of a company that provides care and services to elderly or disabled
adults is required to go through a thorough background check. The
background check and all necessary work documentation must be completed
within 10 days of an employee beginning work or changing positions
within the organization. Companies are also required to verify
that an employee does not show up on any available state abuse registry
and, if so, cannot be offered employment.
Also, this year
HB2778/SB2832, sponsored by Representative Jim Hackworth and
Senator Andy Berke gives relatives the power to seek legal
protection for senior and disabled adults from their abusers. This bill
makes it possible for families to obtain restraining orders against
anyone who abuses or neglects senior citizens. Families will have
an important tool to keep their loved ones out of harm’s way.
Individuals who have been accused of neglect and abuse would no longer
be allowed to contact the alleged abused/neglected adult.
Consequently, the person upon whom a court order has been filed could be
arrested for violating the order of protection.
In addition, this year the
Tennessee House of Representatives expanded the Silver Alert system in
Tennessee to apply to a person of any age who suffers from a documented
case of dementia, whose whereabouts are unknown, and who is believed to
be in danger. Sponsored by State Representative Jim Hackworth
(D-Clinton), Tennessee’s Silver Alert Program was created in 2009 and is
based on the Amber Alert System used to help find children who go
missing.
Protecting Families
and Tennessee’s Most Vulnerable: Last year the House worked
tirelessly to restore the funding for the Department of Children
Services and Tennessee Mental Health programs, two programs constantly
under assault for its necessary costs.
In 2010, recognizing that
such funding attacks could potentially happen again, House members such
as State Representative Jeanne Richardson (D-Memphis), State
Representative Sherry Jones (D-Nashville) and State
Representative JoAnne Favors (D-Chattanooga), began talks early in
the year with leaders on both sides of the aisle in order to protect
important programs that help children and adults suffering in difficult
and abusive environments. Thanks in large part to these talks,
funding in these areas was preserved.
In addition, this year
significant steps were taken to get tough on child predators. State
Representative Henry Fincher (D-Cookeville) sponsored legislation
adding the offense of aggravated rape of a child to the list of sexual
offenses for which an offender must be sentenced to community
supervision for life. Also State Representative Ty Cobb
(D-Columbia) passed a law making it a crime to harbor a known runaway
child or help a child escape from the custody of the child’s parents or
law enforcement.
Improving Safety &
Reducing Crime: The 106th General Assembly saw the House put
forth some of the toughest and most aggressive crime legislation in
recent memory.
In 2009, State
Representatives John DeBerry (D-Memphis) took on criminals with guns
by passing legislation that creates the added charge of “attempting to
commit first degree murder” to any criminal committing a dangerous
felony with a firearm. Also last year, State Representative
Janis Sontany (D-Nashville) made it tough on gangs by giving courts
the ability to issue abatement orders to anyone cited for regularly
engaging in gang-related activities.
This year the House got
tougher on violent criminals, drunk drivers, and sex offenders.
Leader Gary Odom
worked to extend the time violent criminals stayed in jail for first
offenses from an average of 25 percent of their sentence to a minimum of
70 percent. Under the legislation, criminals that commit
aggravated robbery would now be locked up for a minimum of nearly 6
years, rather than the current average of just over 2 years.
The Legislature got
tougher on drunk drivers thanks to two different important pieces of
legislation by House Judiciary Chairman Kent Coleman
(D-Murfreesboro). Under one bill, the list of substances that can
be cited as potential causes for driving under the influence was
expanded to include any “controlled substance, drug, substance affecting
the central nervous system” that “impairs to any extent the driver's
ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.”
In addition, Chairman
Coleman sponsored legislation allowing general sessions courts that
normally try cases of DUI to also make a determination at the same time
whether a driver violated the implied consent law if they refused a
blood or breathalyzer test. By allowing one court to conduct both
hearings, drivers found guilty would immediately lose use of their
license and be off the streets faster.
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