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Lawmakers will take up issues old and new By SHEILA WISSNER Will cable television customers get more choices of service providers? Will voters get to choose among candidates for state appellate courts? Will families have more choices on long-term care for older relatives? Those are some of the questions lawmakers will work to answer when they return to session in two weeks. Many of the issues legislators will take up soon are leftovers from last year, the first session of the 105th General Assembly. A new issue looming is how to build the 2008-09 state budget in light of lagging tax receipts that could put any improvement plans on hold. "Obviously, the budget is a big issue, and how to fund state government in general,'' said Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a Blountville Republican. Other issues legislators plan to take up include whether to: • Let AT&T and other telecommunications firms to enter territory dominated by Comcast and other cable companies without having to negotiate rates with each local government. • Make changes to voting procedures such as requiring local governments to use voting machines with paper trail backups, and abolishing the Judicial Selection Commission so Tennesseans could vote directly for appellate court judges. Under the current system, the governor picks new judges from a list of candidates the commission submits. Voters then decide in subsequent elections whether to retain the pre-selected Supreme Court, Appeals Court and Court of Criminal Appeals judges. • Help people with low incomes or those in financial trouble by raising the minimum wage and tightening laws dealing with foreclosures, mortgage loans and predatory lending. • Provide more options to nursing home care. • Limit the amounts of money that can be won in malpractice lawsuits. Nursing home lobbyists are expected to join others in the health- care field in restricting lawsuits. They will face off against the legal profession, which has been able to beat back changes. • Clamp down further on illegal immigrants by making it costly for businesses to hire them and more difficult for illegal immigrants to get public benefits. • Change the state's open records and open meetings laws. Time is of the essence Legislators also have myriad other issues they hope to bring up or resurrect, such as dealing with the drought, thwarting concert scalpers, stopping copper thieves and allowing "mixed-martial arts" combat sport competitions. Uppermost in the mind of Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris of Collierville is an exit strategy. Last year's session dragged on into June. This year, legislators hope to "hit the ground running the first week,'' he said. "We need to get out on time, which is April,'' Norris said. |
