Gov. Bill Lee Expected to Back Statewide Education Savings Account Legislation

The move to expand Tennessee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program statewide is expected to have a very powerful ally in the General Assembly’s next session, sources told The Tennessee Star.

State Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville) said Governor Bill Lee is planning a press conference on Tuesday to discuss a bill to expand ESA beyond Metro Nashville, Memphis, and Hamilton County into all of Tennessee’s 95 counties.

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Poll: Tennessee Voters Even on Support of Publicly Funding Sports Stadiums

Tennessee voters were even on their opposition or support of publicly-funded stadiums in a new Beacon Center poll.

The nonprofit policy center that supports free market solutions to public policy polled 1,181 potential Tennessee voters and found that 35% support publicly funding stadium such as the Tennessee Titans and Minor League Baseball stadiums in Knoxville and Chattanooga. Another 34% oppose the funding with 22% saying they are neutral and 8% unsure.

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Beacon Center Publishes Strategy to Cut Red Tape in Tennessee

The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee unveiled a strategy Tuesday to whittle down the mass of regulations that burden businesses in the Volunteer State. 

Beacon cites 2017 data from the National Small Business Association indicating that the total financial burden that regulations place on the average American business in its first year of operation surpasses $83,000. And while national regulations are famously onerous, even the generally free-market state government in Tennessee imposes a weighty regulatory regime. 

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Representative Harshbarger Introduces Bill to Reform Occupational Licensing: ‘Freedom to Work Act’

Representative Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) introduced the “Freedom to Work Act” on Wednesday – a bill to reform occupational licensing.

The Freedom to Work Act would require federal executive agencies to review their authorities, regulations, or policies that directly impose occupational licensing requirements or cause state, local, or tribal governments to adopt occupational licensing requirements. Then, those agencies would have to identify any changes that would either rescind or offer the least restrictive alternative to any occupational licensing requirements.

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Tennessee Counties Have a Spending Addiction, Beacon Center President Warns

  At least four local governments in Tennessee have proposed massive property tax increases totaling more than $200 million a year, according to a new column from the Beacon Center of Tennessee. Beacon is a Nashville-based free market think tank. Beacon President Justin Owen said in a column on the organization’s website that many local governments pass new budgets this time of year. Owen also referenced how Metro Nashville Council members just defeated a $154 million property tax increase — by a single vote. Hamilton County officials, meanwhile, are pushing for $34 million in new property taxes. “In Murfreesboro, the city has voted on a 34-cent tax increase, while Rutherford County officials are piling on with a 9.5 percent tax hike proposal on top of that,” Owen wrote. “Could it be that all these local governments are starving for revenue? Uniformly, these cities and counties don’t have a revenue problem, they have a spending addiction.” Owen said “Nashville has shelled out corporate welfare like no other city could imagine,” citing, among other things, $14 million for Opryland’s new water park. Hamilton County commissioners, meanwhile, operate what Owen called “their own slush fund, doling out nearly $1 million annually to their…

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Expanding Medicaid in Tennessee Brings Danger, Despite Mainstream Media Cheerleading

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Mainstream media outlets across Tennessee continue to beat the drum for expanding Medicaid, hoping to sway most Volunteer State residents to see things their way. But, as The Tennessee Star reported, expanding Medicaid brings peril. A recent Tennessean article tried to make the case for expanded Medicaid. Opinion pieces in The Memphis Commercial Appeal and The Murfreesboro Post tried to do the same. The Tennessean, for instance, wrote about how voters in deep-red Utah, Nebraska, and Idaho approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid. “The results appear to show increasing non-partisan voter support for expansion, which was once a political lightning rod because of its legal framework under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare,” according to The Tennessean. “But, as nearly three-fourths of the nation have now expanded Medicaid, a critical question remains: Will Tennessee?” If the program were to expand, the paper went on to say, more than 300,000 Tennesseans would qualify for coverage. Tennessee, the paper added, loses out on about $1.4 billion in federal taxpayer funding per year. Writing for The Commercial Appeal, McKenzie Mayor Jill Holland told readers that state taxpayers would pay nothing if Tennessee expanded Medicaid. Hospitals, she said, would pay the state’s share of the…

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Expanding Medicaid Perilous for Tennessee, Think Tank Warns

In a new op-ed, the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a Nashville-based free-market think tank, warned all Tennessee officials to resist temptations to expand Medicaid. Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, for instance, is one of many politicians who want to make it happen. Beacon Executive Vice President Stephanie Whitt, writing for KnoxNews.com, said there are several important matters to consider, not the least of which is the notion Tennessee gets free money. “This is not free money,” Whitt said. “Expansion would be paid for with new federal taxpayer dollars, borrowed from our children and grandchildren, that are not guaranteed in the future. This could potentially put our state at risk to either shell out additional state taxpayer dollars to cover the expanded population or go through the painful process of kicking hundreds of thousands of people off the program.” Medicaid is expensive, Whitt said. TennCare costs Tennesseans $12 billion, eating up nearly a third of the state’s $37.5 billion total budget, she said. “To put that in perspective, Tennessee is spending approximately $32.8 million per day on TennCare,” Whitt said. “It is simply unrealistic to think we can expand our TennCare population by a minimum of 250,000…

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Veterinary Board Rule Change Threatens Fines and Jail for ‘Unlicensed Horse Massage’

Tennessee Star

The Beacon Center Legal Foundation announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the state Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. The Vet Board recently defined “animal massage” as a form of veterinary medicine, meaning that merely rubbing horses now requires a veterinarian license. The Beacon Center – a nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to developing and supporting free market solutions to public policy issues in Tennessee  – believes this law is unconstitutional and has filed suit on behalf of Martha Stowe and Laurie Wheeler of Franklin, as both of their careers and livelihoods depend on horse massage therapy. Continuing to practice horse massage therapy subjected them to fines and even potential jail time. The Beacon Center warned the Vet Board in a letter of its intention to sue, should the Board keep the bizarre rule change. The two weeks passed, the Vet Board kept the licensure requirement, and the Center, in fact, filed suit. This is the third lawsuit the Center has filed, winning its first lawsuit against the city of Nashville for its unconstitutional homesharing regulations. The group also looks likely to get a second legal victory after its challenge of a Haslam Administration expansion of a similar licensing requirement for shampooing. A repeal of that rule is in the works. Beacon Center Litigation Director Braden…

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POLL: 95 Per Cent Nashville Taxpayers OPPOSE Subsidizing Opryland Water Park Deal

Tennessee Star - Sound Waves

Last week we told you about the Beacon Center’s online poll asking Tennessee taxpayers if they supported the Metro Nashville City Council’s preliminary vote to grant a tax incentive deal worth $14 million to Opryland. The early results showed that a staggering 92.5% opposed the luxury resort receiving generous tax breaks to build a private water park available to only their hotel guests. The poll is now completed, and the final numbers are in. After a full week of voting, an even larger margin of Tennessee Taxpayers – 95% – now oppose the deal. With such an overwhelming response, the Beacon Center took a look at how else that $14 million could have been used. Based on average salaries in the city of Nashville, this $14 million tax break to the Opryland hotel could have paid for one year’s salary for 276 teachers, 280 police officers, or 335 firefighters.  Mark Cunningham of the Beacon Center noted in a statement, “Nashvillians and Tennesseans are almost unanimously opposed to giving taxpayer money to a water park. A whopping 95% of Tennesseans believe that this incentive deal to the Opryland Waterpark is a bad idea, which is truly incredible. Not even 95% of people…

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