Legislation Seeks To Greatly Increase Administrative State In West Tennessee (Update 3.9.22)

***Update 3.9.22 – House Bill 1989 (HB1989) has been taken off notice for the House Commerce Committee. Senator Mark Pody reports that the legislation is dead.***

Image Credit: compiled from the Public Domain

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

A set of bills is now pending in the Tennessee Legislature to greatly increase the bureaucratic administrative state in West Tennessee.  The bill would essentially delegate many traditional powers of government to an appointed board. Those powers include eminent domain. 

David Seal, Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party, says “We have all been warned of the perils of the administrative state for years. This is exceptionally alarming.”

House Bill 1989 (HB1989), sponsored by Representative Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville-District 95)  and Senate Bill 1915 (SB1915), sponsored by Senator Page Walley (R-Bolivar-District 26), in summary, enacts the Interstate Compact Between the States of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee Creating the RegionSmart Development District and the RegionSmart Development Agency of the Greater Memphis Region.

According to an article from the American Policy Center, the legislation would create a quasi-governmental and public entity (Public-Private Partnership) with the power of “eminent domain and condemnation of any and all rights of property,” in parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

The article goes on to state that the RegionSmart Development District and Agency of the Greater Memphis Region “will operate virtually autonomously,” which means they will operate with no accountability to those who live under their control.

According to the article, residents would be unable to vote out the quasi-governments / public entities and unless residents attend all the meetings, there will be no way to know what they are doing. Even if residents did attend all the meetings, there would be no way to stop their actions as they are autonomous. 

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A former Polk County Commissioner, Conservative Republican Karen Bracken, sent out an email urging Tennessee residents to contact the committee members of the Tennessee House and Senate to oppose the legislation along with a powerpoint presentation outlining the dangers of regionalism.

You can download the powerpoint presentation HERE. 

Bracken said, “Make no mistake but regionalism is part of the plan to not only destroy US borders but to destroy borders between states. No matter what warm and fuzzy words and utopian promises they make, the end result will not be what people are being told. We must stop regionalism and this interstate compact IS regionalism…there will be huge grant money from the federal government because they perpetuate these compacts in order to drive the regionalism agenda. Any time big federal money is involved there are also big strings attached and those strings never work out well for the citizens/tax payers and this should be a huge red flag. The grant money is your money which means we are forced to pay for our own demise.”

According to Bracken, the legislation will only affect three counties in Tennessee initially but warns that if it is not stopped now, it will not terminate with just those three.

If you oppose this legislation or have concerns, contact the Republican members of the committees in the House and Senate prior to their meetings on March 8th and 9th respectively.

House Commerce Committee – Republican members

Kevin Vaughn (Chair) – rep.kevin.vaughn@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1866

Rush Bricken (Vice-Chair) – rep.rush.bricken@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7448

Rebecca Alexander – rep.rebecca.alexander@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2251

Clark Boyd – rep.clark.boyd@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7086

Kent Calfee – rep.kent.calfee@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7658

Jeremy Faison – rep.jeremy.faison@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6871

Kirk Haston – rep.kirk.haston@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-0750

Patsy Hazlewood – rep.patsy.hazlewood@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2746

John Holsclaw Jr. – rep.john.holsclaw@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7450

Curtis Johnson – rep.curtis.johnson@captiol.tn.gov – (615) 741- 4341

Susan Lynn – rep.susan.lynn@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7462

Eddie Mannis – rep.eddie.mannis@captiol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2287

Jerome Moon – rep.jerome.moon@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-5481

Dennis Powers – rep.dennis.powers@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-3335

Mike Sparks – rep.mike.sparks@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6829

Greg Vital – rep.greg.vital@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-3025

Jason Zachary – rep.jason.zachary@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2264

Senate Government Operations Committee – Republican members

Kerry Roberts (chair) – sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4499

Ed Jackson (1st Vice-Chair) – sen.ed.jackson@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1810

Janice Bowling (2nd Vice-Chair) – sen.janice.bowling@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6694

Mike Bell – sen.mike.bell@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1946

Rusty Crowe – sen.rusty.crowe@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2468

Mark Pody – sen.mark.pody@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2421

Paul Rose – sen.paul.rose@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1967

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com