State Representative Jerry Sexton: ‘We Need to Get Back to a Representative Government and Quit Letting the Lobbyists and These Big Organizations Take over Our State House’

 

Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Tennessee State Representative Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station) in studio to talk about the use of the state’s budget, K-12 education, and his position on eliminating federal funding of state education.

Leahy: We are joined in the studio by our very good friend, State Representative Jerry Sexton from Bean Station. Jerry…

Sexton: (Chuckles) Yes.

Leahy: Every 10 years, the Constitution requires that the state legislatures redraw the boundaries for congressional districts and state legislative districts.

And I just looked at the state House district boundaries, and it turns out, Jerry, I don’t know if you know this, but what I discovered is there are only two state legislators that have been put together, two Republican incumbents that have been forced to be in the same House district.

Guess what? You and Rick Eldridge are now going to have to fight it out in the August 2022 primary because you now are in the same district.

Leahy: What’s going on with that?

Sexton: I’ll let you in the audience, make up your own mind. But since we’re the only ones there, I told Rick, I said, they’re trying to get rid of you or me, one looks like.

Leahy: Which one do you think they’re trying to get rid of?

Sexton: I think it’s me.

Leahy: Why is that?

Sexton: Because I’m very conservative, very outspoken.

Leahy: You were the leading opponent of this gas tax increase in 2017.

Sexton: Michael, I’m here to represent the people, and that’s what I do. I’ll take any donations. If you want to give them some, I send them back. But I don’t ask for money. I’m here to represent the people.

Leahy: Sure.

Sexton: But we need to get back to a representative government and quit letting the lobbyists and these big organizations take over our state House. And my purpose for being here is to do just that. I want to stand for the people. And when we do that, we get back to a representative government.

Leahy: So here’s the thing. Rick Eldrige, the two of you have been forced to compete against each other.

Sexton: That’s correct. Yes.

Leahy: I thought the Republican Party, the idea was to protect incumbents. Maybe not.

Sexton: Maybe not.

Leahy: Certain incumbents get protected. Others don’t.

Sexton: They do.

Leahy: So you’re going to have to fight it out with Rick.

Sexton: I’m not trying to throw anybody under the bus, but what’s obvious is obvious.

Leahy: Occam’s Razor comes back again.

Sexton: Everyone knows that. I’ve been a fighter my whole life, and I don’t mind doing that. Rick and I are friends and he wants to serve just like I do. So we’ll see what happens.

Leahy: We’ve not met Rick Eldridge. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t in the Tennessee General Assembly when you led the fight against the gas tax. But we will invite him on the program and we’ll talk to him a little bit so people can get to know him.

Sexton: Sure. Okay. Good.

Leahy: And people up there in the district know you’re competing with him. We’ll see. Now let’s change topics here a little bit.

Let’s look at this budget, this State of the State budget that Governor Lee introduced at the State of the State address Monday night amidst all sorts of pageantry. The focus, is $52 billion.

You said that’s almost double what it was when you were in eight years ago because nothing says a growing economy like almost doubling the expenditures of the state government.

Sexton: Obviously, we know that the state of Tennessee is growing and it takes more money. We also know that inflation is part of that. And we know that the federal government is printing money and giving it to the states and requiring them to spend it.

With that said, there are a lot of good things in the budget. We’re adding to education and different things that are going to make our state better. However, I wonder what’s going to happen when we take a $52 billion budget with no tax cuts?

Leahy: That’s a head-scratcher with all of our surpluses.

Sexton: That’s crazy. It’s just like when we had the gas tax, we had a surplus. We had plenty of money, and then we went to raise taxes. It makes no sense. And it just grows government.

We’re not for growing government we are for reducing government. That’s what I stand for. Let the people govern. And it’s just a behemoth that will be hard to take down further down the road.

Leahy: You recall during the debates in the early spring of 2017 about the need for the gas tax increase so that extra money is coming to the state treasury. Has it been used to build roads as was promised, or has it been used for other things?

Have you tracked that? I don’t have any actual data, but I will say that it appears to me just traveling the roads that I know in my area that they’ve paved a lot of roads.

Leahy: So you’ve seen a lot.

Sexton: I’ve seen a lot of good things.

Leahy: So you’ve seen it put to good use?

Sexton: Yes.

Leahy: Good. We haven’t looked into it either. We probably ought to. Right?

Sexton: We should.

Leahy: Yeah, we should. I got a curveball coming. You ready?

Sexton: I’m ready.

Leahy: Here it comes. I’m lining it up. Here it comes. I asked this of every member of the Tennessee General Assembly either on the newsmaker line or in-studio because it is something I think is very important.

I’ve yet to get anybody to say yes to this question. So let me throw it out there. Here comes winding up, coming towards the plate, about the curve across the lower-left edge, lower corner of the plate.

K-12 public education. Our test scores have been going down, down, down. They’re disastrous. The pandemic has something to do with it, but I have a theory. I think part of this has to do with the fact that the federal government provides about 10 percent of all K-12 public education in the state of Tennessee.

Typically, the state provides about 50 percent. Localities provide about 40 percent, something like that. But I think with that federal money comes strengths and all sorts of compliance regulations and all sorts of stupid rules that make it more difficult to actually teach reading, writing, and arithmetic.

So here’s the curveball. Will you State Representative Jerry Sexton, consider, notice I gave you a little out there, this session introducing legislation that will tell the federal government to keep every single penny of the money they send to the state of Tennessee for the purpose of K-12 public education on the theory that when they send money they also have strings?

Sexton: You know how to hit a curveball, right? You got to get out in front of it. (Leahy bellows) You’ve got to get out in front of it or it’s already past the plate. I would absolutely be up for that. Here’s what we run into, Michael.

We talk among us in the legislature that we know that education is broken and that with all the money from the feds come strings and that we would be willing to give all that money back.

Now we talk amongst ourselves. But then when it comes to throwing it out there and I’ll just say we. We don’t have the guts to stand up and say yes. I would say I can’t. I can’t this year because today’s the filing deadline.

Leahy: Is today the filing deadline?

Sexton: It is.

Leahy: Is it five o’clock?

Sexton: Yes it is.

Leahy: Well, you got time. (Laughs)

Sexton: No, you have to go to legal. Excuse me. (Chuckles) They have to write up the language for you. And they’re behind.

Leahy: They’re behind.

Sexton: Now, I could file a caption, but it still takes 24 hours to get a caption. I want to go on the record. Yes, yes I would. So if I come back next year, I’d be willing to do that next year.

Leahy: There we go. You just made some news.

Sexton: Absolutely. Listen, I am for school vouchers. We know that competition is what made this country great. We can have one education system expect that we’ve got competition and it drives the cost down and it drives the value up. We have no competition. And we’ve got Democrats running the education system.

Leahy: Absolutely.

Sexton: Out of Washington, D.C. And I say it like this to my Republican friends, how can you support a Democrat? And I go as far as to say and this may sink my ship, but it’s the most Communist thing in our country.

Leahy: I don’t think it will sink your ship.

Sexton: We have no competition. And all the money that the Democrats are putting into the election every year. Why do we as Republicans won’t support that?

Leahy: You just made some news here, and that’s a campaign promise.

Sexton: Yes.

Leahy: This will distinguish you from your competitor. We’ll have him in here. We’ll ask him the same question. And if he makes that commitment, then you’ll be on the same issue level. But we’ll see.

Sexton: May I say this, Michael? You just mentioned that I’ve got a furniture manufacturing business.  You know what makes me stronger?

Leahy: What’s that?

Sexton: Competition.

Leahy: Well, there you go. By the way, are you aware of capital stop by and say hello to State Representative Bruce Griffey. Because a week ago sitting where you are, he said he would consider introducing the bill. He might already have one. So maybe you could talk to him and see if he could get it in before 5:00 p.m. today.

Sexton: Possibly.

Listen to the interview:

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Rep. Jerry Sexton” by State Representative Jerry Sexton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.