April 18, 2003

 Williams's Utility Relocation Bill Approved

NASHVILLE--House Bill 900/Senate Bill 588 by Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Micheal Williams (R-Maynardville) passed unanimously through the full Senate Monday to revise the process for relocating utilities during the construction phase of transportation projects.

The bipartisan measure is a very important administration bill that helps both rural and urban areas on an issue that has not been dealt with in the past, the Democrat co-prime sponsor of the bill stated in committee testimony.  The change in the law is expected to cost about $12.5 million and then to save about the same amount of money in the first year and in future years is expected to save the state money by preventing construction delays.

Senators Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) and David Fowler (R-Signal Mountain) are co-sponsors of the bill.

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Two Lottery Bills Advance

Two bills dealing with a state lottery have now advanced to the floor of the Senate. Senate Bill 1/House Bill 1, the Tennessee Education Lottery Implementation Law, and Senate Bill 437/House Bill 787, the Lottery Scholarship Bill, both passed out of the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee this week.  At this point, the Senate and the House have diverged significantly in the approaches they are taking on the bills, signaling a probable conference committee.  Senator Jeff Miller (R-Cleveland) is a co-sponsor of SB 1.

"We have a long ways to go before we'll see the final form of the lottery bills after both houses of the General Assembly get done hammering out the details.  But right now we can say that the current version is much better because it provides parity in the treatment of private and public school students and is fairer in the treatment of home schoolers," stated Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville) who was a driving force behind several amendments that have been placed on the bills.  "Most likely both bills are headed to a conference committee in which we will piece together a compromise that is acceptable to both houses and the governor's office."

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Bills, Bills, Bills

All things considered:  As of 11 a.m. (CDT) Thursday, April 17, the Senate has 2,019 Senate bills filed, while the House has 2,100 bills filed.  Senate Joint Resolutions now number 299; House Joint Resolutions 399; Senate Resolutions 37; and House Resolutions 108.  The Senate has used 30 days and the House has used 27 days of the 90 regular session days allowed every two years under Article II, Section 23 of the Constitution for a regular session.  The Senate and the House recessed Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, and plan to convene in regular session on Monday, April 21, at 5 p.m.

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Senate Floor Actions

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SB 629/HB 789 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to authorize municipalities to dispose of permanent paper records when they have been appropriately preserved by other means such as microfilm or computer storage.

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SB 840/HB 950 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to prohibit the management of golf courses in state parks from giving public officials free golf for life or for other extended periods of time unless they are authorized by the Parks and Tourism Subcommittee and approved by the House Conservation and Environment Committee and by the Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee.

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SB  878/HB 1407 by Senator Ramsey passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to allow a local education agency to purchase equipment at the same price and terms of contract entered into by another LEA for the same equipment as a cost-saving measure.

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SB 902/HB 844 by Senator Bill Clabough (R-Maryville) passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to allow a city clerk, recorder, or director of finance of a municipality to adjust claims for refund of municipal taxes on the same basis that a county clerk may adjust and refund county taxes.

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SB 1389/HB 1566 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to clarify that the state Treasurer is authorized to provide an annual grant funding of up to $100,000, if it is appropriated, to the Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence for the purpose of supporting the Victims of Crime State Coordinating Council and to delete provisions crediting appearance bond forfeiture funds to the county Criminal Injuries Compensation Reserve.

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SB 1391/HB 944 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to authorize the Committee of Occupational Therapy to establish requirements for assessing the continued competence of licensed occupational therapists.

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SB 1603/HB 1013 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to remove the present restriction which does not permit counties having county-wide zoning to exercise nuisance powers granted to municipalities which other counties may exercise by adopting a resolution by a two-thirds vote and to require such regulations to also be enacted by adoption of a resolution passed by a two-thirds vote.

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SB 1787/HB 1721 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to expand local government authorization to pay the occupational privilege tax on behalf of their employees to include all local governments.

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SB 1954/HB 2050 passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Monday to revise the Interstate Juvenile Compact to provide that a child brought before a court in a state other than the child's home state may be returned to that home state if the court is willing to permit it.

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SB 195/HB 465 by Senator Ben Atchley (R-Knoxville) passed unanimously through the full Senate Monday to establish certain procedures for determining the amount of compensation to be paid when an annexing municipality elects to be the exclusive provider of utility services within a territory previously served by a utility district or other public service district.

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HB 1010/SB 365, the Ham Radio Bill, by Senator Jeff Miller (R-Cleveland) passed unanimously through the full Senate Monday to prohibit a municipality or county from enacting or enforcing an ordinance that does not comply with the Federal Communications Commission ruling in Amateur Radio Preemption 101 FCC 2nd 952 (1985) or a regulation related to amateur radio service adopted under 47 C.F.R. Part 97.  According to the bill summary, if a municipality adopts an ordinance involving the placement, screening or height of an amateur antenna based on health, safety or aesthetic conditions, the ordinance must reasonably accommodate amateur radio communications and represent the minimal practicable regulation to accomplish the municipality's or county's purpose.

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SB 664/HB 1363 passed unanimously through the full Senate Monday to direct the Commissioner of Finance and Administration to review property leased by the state to see if it would be more advantageous to own such property and the commissioner is further directed to report such determinations to the governor.  As amended, upon the approval by the governor for any recommendation that will cost more than $1 million, the commissioner would present a recommendation to the Fiscal Review Committee.  Upon approval of that committee, the commissioner would then present a recommendation to the State Funding Board and, upon the approval by the governor for any recommendation that will cost $1 million or less, the commissioner would present a recommendation directly to the State Funding Board.

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SB 806/HB 1333 by Senator Atchley passed unanimously through the full Senate Monday to require non-resident creditors involved in the foreclosure of Tennessee residential real estate owned in Tennessee by a Tennessee resident to conduct discovery in the county in which foreclosure litigation is pending.  The bill seeks to prevent Tennesseans from being forced to travel to California and other remote states for depositions or else to surrender their rights.

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SB 1930/HB 2057 passed unanimously through the full Senate Monday to include information on pre-need trust accounts in information that must be provided for transfer to the Commissioner of Commerce and Insurance prior to the sale or transfer of a cemetery required to be registered or the sale of a controlling interest in a cemetery company that owns a cemetery and to authorize the commissioner to deny or suspend a registration for a cemetery in violation of regulations.

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HB 744/SB 720, the County Mayor Bill, by Senators Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville), Ramsey, Atchley, Bill Ketron (R-Murfeesboro), Williams, and Clabough, among others, passed the Senate Wednesday by a 31-1 vote to rename the chief executive officer of a county in Tennessee to county mayor.  The name change would take effect on July 1.  As a cost-savings move, the bill would require the new county mayors to exhaust their existing supplies of stationery.  The bill will be held on the Senate desk while it undergoes further review.

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HB 455/SB 151 passed unanimously through the Senate Wednesday to require not more than one member of the State Board of Education to be a K-12 public school teacher.

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SB 1114/HB 1688 by Senators Atchley and Steve Southerland (R-Hamblen County) passed unanimously through the Senate Wednesday to revise the law regarding manufactured housing and mobile homes.

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HB 1248/SB 1175 passed unanimously through the Senate Wednesday to extend the 90-day extension of the deadline for payment of property taxes and the Hall income tax for military personnel on active duty outside the United States during Operation Enduring Freedom to other hostilities in which military personnel are entitled to combat pay.  As amended, the bill also adds the occupational privilege tax to the list.  All members signed on as co-sponsors.

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HB 1819/SB 1765 passed unanimously through the Senate Wednesday to permit the use of a continuously flashing light system on motorcycles as a highway safety feature.  The flashing could last no longer than 5 seconds when the brake is applied after which it must shine continuously like a normal brake lamp.

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SB 1931/HB 2003 passed unanimously through the Senate Wednesday to require certain taxpayers under specified conditions to file an electronic tax payment for sales and use taxes when the taxpayer is consistently liable for $10,000 or more within a tax period.

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SB 1974/HB 2016 passed unanimously through the Senate Wednesday to remove obsolete language about kindergarten being optional.  Currently, kindergarten is mandatory.

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SB 216/HB 453 by Senator Curtis Person (R-Memphis) passed through unanimous consent of the Senate Wednesday to enact the "Peter and Eugenia Campochiaro Highway Safety Act of 2003."  SB 216 states that the driver of any vehicle approaching an intersection which is controlled by a traffic-control signal that is inoperative shall come to a full and complete stop at the intersection, and may proceed with due caution when it is safe to do so; provided, that if two or more vehicles enter such an intersection from different directions at approximately the same time, after having come to full and complete stops, the driver of the vehicle on the left shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right.  The effective date is July 1.

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SB 65/HB 1803 has been rescheduled for a vote on April 23.  The bill removes a provision which the Registry of Election Finance is not enforcing.  That provision places a limitation on the amount of personal funds that a candidate can contribute to that candidate's own election.  The Registry does not enforce this provision based on case law and Attorney General interpretations that state limits on a candidate's personal campaign contributions are unconstitutional (AG Opinion 98-016) and that the Registry cannot constitutionally enforce the contribution limits on a candidate's loan to a campaign committee (AG Opinion 01-161).

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Selected Senate Committee Actions

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SB 1753/HB 1808 by Senator Clabough moved through Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee to expand the authority of the Commissioner of Revenue within the state.  Currently, the commissioner can contract with any debt collection agency or attorney to collect unpaid taxes, licenses, fees, interest, or penalty outside of Tennessee.  This bill would extend that authority to collection activities within the state.

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SB 1088/HB 1634, a housekeeping bill, passed out of Senate Commerce, Labor and Agriculture Committee to rewrite the laws regarding polygraph examiners.  Prior to administering any polygraph test, examiners would have to obtain a signature from the person being polygraphed that notification was given that all polygraph tests are voluntary.

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SJR 15 passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to start the laborious process of changing the state constitution to make it easier to change the state constitution.   SJR 15 would require that a referendum item be placed on the ballot of the next regular November election, rather than the next gubernatorial election and to require, for passage of a referendum item, a majority of citizens voting in favor of that referendum rather than a majority as determined by the number of citizens voting for governor.  Senator Clabough is a co-sponsor of the measure.

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SB 740 by Senators Fowler and Person passed out of Senate Judiciary Committee to prohibit a registered sex offender from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day care, child care facility, or victims' residence; working within 1,000 feet of the same; or living in the same place where a minor resides unless that registered sex offender is the parent of that minor who also must not have been a victim of that offender.