Image Credit: Adelia Kirchner / The Tennessee Conservative
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
Following hours of debate and insurmountable contention in the House over a lack of transparency regarding the cost of one bill in particular, Tennessee lawmakers officially passed a $59.8 billion state budget on Wednesday.
HB1409/SB1431 is the state budget for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), beginning July 1st, 2025.
“This budget is based on a forecasted increase in revenue over the next twelve months, or the next fiscal year, of 2%,” said Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin-District 27). “That’s a very conservative estimate. So we are maintaining our tradition of being very conservative in terms of our projections.”
Sen. Johnson touted $166 million in agency-based budget reductions.
“We continue to reduce the size of government,” he said. “It reduces 324 vacant positions, offset by 269 new positions, but that is still a net reduction of 55 positions in state government.”
The budget was passed by a 30-2 vote in the Senate with Democrat Senators Charlane Oliver and Jeff Yarbro making up the no votes. Democrat Senator London Lamar was marked as “present not voting.”
While the budget passed in the Senate in a relatively swift fashion, its passage in the House was a different story as lawmakers on both sides of the political isle questioned why they had been lied to about the cost of a bill to strip local GOPs of their ability to choose a caucus or convention over a primary election for the election of candidates to local positions.
HB0855/SB0799 was brought by Rep. Lee Reeves (R-Franklin-District 65) and Sen. Johnson via a caption bill following the reorganization of Williamson County’s GOP.
In committee and on the floor, lawmakers were told repeatedly during consideration of HB0855/SB0799 that there was no cost associated with the legislation.
However, an amendment proposing to add $8 million to the budget for local primary elections raised both eyebrows and questions on the House floor Wednesday.
“This bill dealing with primary elections…We just had a pretty extensive debate on the House floor with regards to legislation involving primaries and caucuses,” said Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville-District 55). “I actually voted for that piece of legislation. Is this amendment intended to fund that legislation? Because it was represented that there would be no additional cost to the state or counties if that bill passed.”
“If we did that without knowing it had a fiscal note that raises some concerns in my mind,” Rep. Clemmons continued, “So I was just curious if this $8 million is tied to that piece of legislation in any way.”
Chair of the House Finance Subcommittee, Rep. Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville-District 42) responded saying once again that HB0855/SB0799 has no fiscal impact.
“That bill that you’re referring to did go through the committee process,” said Rep. Williams. “There is no fiscal impact. This body is going to try to in ways, defer costs and pay for costs with state revenues for local elections for one year with the hope that we can come back and do it in following years. This is just simply an appropriation amendment like every other appropriation amendment. It has nothing to do with that bill.”
Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill-District 92) stood up to speak on the issue after watching Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee meeting, during which Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald-District 28) asked what the $8 million addition was for and Chair of Senate Finance Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson-District 11) said that the $8 million allocation for primary elections was, in fact, brought based on the passage of HB0855/SB0799.
“Folks we were lied to in committee,” said Rep. Warner. “We were lied to in committee about this bill. We went out of session. I asked legal. I asked the bill sponsor, and the cost was not significant is what I was told. We were point-blank lied to.”
“This is terrible, we’re at this point. That we’ve come in here and we’re gonna stick an $8 million note on a bill that passed out of committee with no note on it. With no cost,” Rep. Warner continued. “I ask that we send this bill back to committee, go through the proper process, and do what’s right for the taxpayers of this great state. You deserve better.”
Rep. Williams maintained his position that the $8 million has nothing to do with HB0855/SB0799.
“Once again, I know there’s a lot of discussion…maybe some bad blood over another bill, but this is a simple appropriation,” said Rep. Williams.
“Let’s be straight and let’s be honest with Tennesseans,” responded Rep. Warner. “You’re being misled here members. You’re being misled.”
House lawmakers ultimately added the $8 million to the final budget by a 57-30 vote.
Republicans Alexander, Atchely, Baum, Boyd, Bricken, Burkhart, Carringer, Cepicky, Cochran, Crawford, Darby, Davis, Eldridge, Faison, Farmer, Gant, Garrett, Gillespie, Grills, Hale, Hawk, Helton-Haynes, Hicks G, Hicks T, Hill Howell, Hulsey, Jones R, Kumar, Lafferty, Lamberth, Leatherwood, Littleton, Lynn, Maberry, Marsh, Martin G, McCalmon, Moody, Moon, Powers, Raper, Reedy, Reeves, Rudder, Scarbrough, Sherrell, Slater, Stevens, Terry, Travis, Vital, White, Williams, Wright, Zachary and Speaker Sexton all voted in favor of the amendment.
Republicans voting against the amendment were Jody Barrett, Gino Bulso, Monty Fritts, Chris Hurt, Kelly Keisling, Michele Reneau, Lowell Russell, Mike Sparks, and Todd Warner.
Republican Chris Todd marked himself as “present and not voting.”
The final budget in its entirety passed the House by a 79-16 vote with Democrat Ronnie Glynn marked as “present and not voting.”
Now that the budget has been passed by both chambers, Tennesseans can expect to see select pieces of legislation previously placed “behind the budget” taken up again next week before the legislature adjourns for the year.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. Adelia is The Tennessee Conservative’s on-site reporter for the Tennessee General Assembly. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
2 Responses
Yup, they forced through what was unneeded and unwanted, lied about funding, then lied about money for it. Got a bunch of lucifer’s RINOs in “our” legislature.
Taxpayers should not be funding private political club elections. Their so-called “primaries” are not required by the state constitution. It is only the Republicans and Democrats whose private political clubs demand use of public funds to elect their “class president”. No other parties seem to need taxpayer funds to choose their nominees- and guess what? They are CLOSED nominations, because they don’t take public money and can make their own rules and invite who they want. The TNGOP and Dems have a stranglehold on ballot access for any independent or 3rd party, they force any other candidate to be called “independent” on the ballot, they take taxpayer money for their private club elections and now want to limit how the taxpayer can participate in the “primary” they pay for.