Legislation That Could Save County Residents From Footing The Bill For City Developments Fails In Tennessee House Subcommittee

Image Credit: TN General Assembly

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

A bill that could save county residents from covering the costs of city developments failed in the Cities and Counties Subcommittee of the Local Government Committee on Wednesday.

House Bill 0365 (HB0365), sponsored by State Representative Monty Fritts (R-Kingston-District 32), received only one vote in its favor, coming from State Representative Ed Butler (R-Rickman-District 41).

The legislation, as written, “prohibits a municipality, or an instrumentality of a municipality, from taking an action that affects or has the potential to affect the tax obligations, fees, or other costs for real property owners whose property is located outside of a municipality’s corporate boundary, unless the action is approved by the county legislative body in which such property is located; requires the membership of joint economic and community development boards to proportionately represent the citizenry over which the board exercises jurisdiction by July 1, 2029.”

An amendment to the bill received a motion but died due to the lack of a second on that motion.

Fritts then explained the intention of the bill as well as some of the background related to the need for the legislation to allow everyone affected to have a voice in the decision-making process.

There were no questions or comments from subcommittee members, so the bill went to a vote. It failed with 1 aye and 5 nays, thus preventing it from moving forward.

Republicans voting against the bill were State Representatives John Crawford (Bristol/Kingsport – District 1), Jerome Moon (Maryville – District 8), and Dave Wright (Corryton – District 19).