Tennessee Lawmakers Seek Compromise On Blue Oval City Transparency Bill

Image Credit: tn.gov

The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –

A bill calling for the disclosure of construction contracts at Ford’s Blue Oval City in west Tennessee is headed to a conference committee.

Senate Bill 2204 has been promoted as a transparency requirement related to building at the site, where the Legislature has agreed to give Ford Motor Company $884 million in incentives for its $5.6 billion project.

But differences between the two versions of the bill were not resolved.

“The Senate version is weaker and less transparent than the House, and for that reason I move that we refuse to recede from our action of adopting Amendments 1 and 2,” said Rep. Tim Rudd, R-Murfreesboro.

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On April 7, the House amended a bill passed 26-5 by the Senate on March 31. The changes the House made to the bill include requiring the megasite CEO to report whether new contractors begin work at the site, adding a July 1 effective date and removing a stipulation that only companies doing more than $100,000 of work need to report.

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During House discussion of the bill, Rudd said that it was important for the state to make sure that Ford and its contractors are following state law by not discriminating against non-union contractors when hiring for construction work at the site.

Rudd said that, if the bill passed, the state could then make a call to Ford if it felt that state law was not being followed.

“Earlier this year, we had Tennessee businesses that were applying to do work on the site and they were turning them down based on how much union participation was in their employee force and that was not within Tennessee law,” Rudd said.

About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.

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