Tag: State Rep. Jerry Sexton

Tennessee Legislature Approves $500M for New Titans Domed Stadium

The Center Square
LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee

The Tennessee Legislature approved $500 million of bonds for a new Tennessee Titans stadium as part of a record $52.8 billion budget on Thursday.

The Titans stadium funds were not initially included in budget appropriations passed by the Senate in the early afternoon after they were removed in committee on Wednesday, but later in the day the Senate concurred on the budget that the House had passed, including the Titans stadium funds.

The $500 million in bonds for the stadium will require $55 million in annual payments.

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WWTN’s Ralph Bristol Blasts Conservative State Representative Who Opposes Haslam’s Gas Tax Increase Bill

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  Ralph Bristol, host of Nashville’s Morning News on 99.7 FM WWTN, blasted a leading conservative Republican State Representative who opposes Gov. Haslam’s gas tax increase proposal, the IMPROVE ACT “Tax Cut Act of 2017,” on his program Thursday morning. Earlier this month, State Rep. Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station) called on Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) “to hit the restart button in regards to the IMPROVE Act and to send the bill back to Transportation Subcommittee to be debated fairly and openly,” as The Tennessee Star reported. Bristol is no fan of Sexton or his opposition to the gas tax increase, and made that point very clear on his program Thursday. Recent developments “will hopefully bury Jerry Sexton in the graveyard of political one-hit blunders,” Bristol said near the end of a lengthy soliloquy in which he praised the current version of Gov. Haslam’s gas tax increase bill. The IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017,” he said, “is still, in my opinion, by far the most conservative plan on the table to increase funding for transportation in Tennessee.” Bristol also seemed eager to participate in the debate on the floor of the Tennessee House or Represenatives next week when the…

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Speaker Harwell Says She ‘Cannot Recall a Bill from the Finance Subcommittee’

Christina Botteri
Tennessee Star

  Tennessee State House Speaker Beth Harwell’s office contacted The Tennessee Star Tuesday morning in response to our story Monday about State Representative Jerry Sexton’s press conference. In that press conference, Rep. Sexton (R-Bean Station) called on Speaker Harwell to send back the Gax Tax bill to the House Transportation Subcommittee. “I saw the recent Tennessee Star article entitled “State Rep. Sexton Tells Speaker Harwell: ‘Hit The Restart Button’ On Gas Tax, Send It Back to Subcommittee ‘To Be Debated Fairly and Openly’” and wanted to clarify something,” Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Policy Kara Owen wrote. Ms. Owen continued: The Speaker of the House cannot recall a bill from the House Finance Subcommittee to the House Transportation Subcommittee, per our House rules. This takes a motion on the House floor by a member, and 66 votes (two thirds) for the motion to prevail.    

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State Rep. Sexton Tells Speaker Harwell: ‘Hit The Restart Button’ On Gas Tax, Send It Back to Subcommittee ‘To Be Debated Fairly and Openly’

Laura Baigert
Tennessee Star

  State Representative Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station), joined by more than a dozen colleagues in the Tennessee House of Representatives, held a press conference Monday blasting the Republican leadership for their heavy-handed and ethically questionable tactics to ram through the Governor’s gas tax hike, the key element of the IMPROVE Act. “We are calling on Speaker Harwell, House Leadership, and those that support this bill to hit the restart button in regards to the IMPROVE Act and to send the bill back to Transportation Subcommittee to be debated fairly and openly,” Sexton announced. The Tennessee Star was there with cameras rolling: The Star has reported extensively on how State Rep. Barry Doss, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, broke the rules of the House of Representatives to push Haslam’s gas tax through the committee. On March 22, for instance, The Star published a story titled “Boss Doss Breaks Rules to Ram Amended Gas Tax Increase Through House Transportation Committee,” which provided a blow-by-blow account of the subterfuge behind the bill’s passage that day. “The people have elected Republicans to govern at all levels of state government. The Republicans control the Governors Mansion, the state house, and the state senate. We,…

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