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Democratic members of the State House and Senate need our help beating back the ridiculous policies of the GOP majority.

If you’re like me, and sick of being the butt of a national joke, give to the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses. They directly support the election of Democrats to the state legislature and are actively working to build a bluer Tennessee.

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Help us make a difference, reach our fundraising goal, and let our Democrats know you support them in their fight.

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If you’re like me, and watched in horror as the Tennessee General Assembly considered, and often passed one bad GOP sponsored bill after another, bringing shame to our state, you’re probably wondering what you can do about it.

If you thought Stacey Campfield and his bevy of bills that would harm regular Tennesseans was dispicable, and don’t want to see his face on The Colbert Report anymore, you’re probably wondering what options you have, especially if you don’t live in Knoxville.

Or maybe you got angry when Sen. Jimmy Summerville, (R- Dickson) said, “I don’t give a rats ass” to the Black Caucus.

Perhaps you were offended by the blatant mistruths spouted by Rep. Andy Holt (R-Desden) as he pushed through his ALEC sponsored Ag Gag Bill, which not only protects animal abusers, but punishes those who seek to expose them.

To be honest, there are far too many examples of legislative over-reach, and bad policy to put in one place. (Here’s my best effort)

Over the past two cycles the GOP has reached “super-majority” status. Its enough to make you think the leadership of the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses would just fold.

Thankfully they didn’t.

With a renewed energy, and the addition of some voices that had previously been silent, the Caucuses put up a fight, even if they didn’t have the votes to stop some of these bills.

Big ups to Minority Leaders Craig Fitzhugh and Lowe Finney, the ever “vocabulant” Mike Turner, and a newcomer to the House Democratic Caucus, Gloria Johnson, who proved herself to be a force to be reckoned with. In all, considering the circumstances, I feel they did a pretty good job.

If you’re like me and tired of having to deal with a state government that is pushing the state backwards and hurting regular folks while helping out of state special interests, maybe its time to put your money where your mouth is.

Give to the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses. These organizations support Democratic legislative candidates across the state and are working to expand the ranks of Democrats in their respective caucuses.

Give what your can. Even small donations go a long way (I don’t have much to give either). But you can make your voice heard, and make a difference. Contribute to the Tennessee House and Senate Democratic Caucuses securely using the Act Blue links below.

Because being jaded never changed anything.

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On Friday, the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned for the year, an event that was largely overshadowed by a series of national and statewide events that dominated coverage last week.

There have been a lot of post-session roundups. From the measured but extensive coverage of Tom Humphrey, to the more snark driven flourishes of Jeff Woods.

The one thing Tennesseans can take to the bank is that the GOP led state legislature focused on just about everything except helping them take more to the bank through economic development or reducing healthcare costs.

Focused on Magic Beans

The one thing the legislature did focus on was legislation intended to further the ideological aims of those who seek to send public money to private companies en masse. The school voucher bill, a top priority for the Haslam Administration, died when a certain Senator from Germantown wouldn’t let go of his designs on upping the ante.

Another school related bill suffering the same fate was House Speaker Beth Harwell’s pet project, an expansion of the state charter authorizer…an outright dig at the Metro Nashville School Board, who thwarted a charter operator over the ruling of the State Dept. of Education in the fall.

One final school related bill that did make it out of the contentious final days was a bill that allows “for-profit” organizations to operate charter schools. This bill happened so late in session, and among so many other things that I had to call the Senate Clerk’s office to confirm that it had been passed as the vote hadn’t been updated on the General Assembly website. As a side note, they were very helpful and tracked down the vote for me in mere minutes. Good job on that.

Subverting Justice

There were several bills that dealt with different kinds of justice. One such bill, which was actively pursued by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, would have changed the way judicial districts were drawn in the state and reduced them by two. That bill failed Friday in a battle of wills. There’s no word as to whether it will come up again next year, as petitions for judicial elections will be released near the beginning of session.

While people expecting speedy justice from the judicial branch were spared, others were not so lucky.

Abused animals to the brunt of legislative beatings in the passage of a bill that would make it harder to document animal abuse.

Workers seeking justice for their injuries were injured when the legislature approved changes to the workers compensation system that further tilts it against them.

Municipalities seeking to ensure workers employed on government funded jobs likely took a hit to their bank accounts as a bill seeking to overturn local living wage ordinances made its way to the Governor.

People living on fixed incomes, especially those who were likely poor to begin with, may hunger for a change as they see one of the most popular programs anywhere cut. Meals on Wheels, the popular program that helps poor elderly people eat, got cut $2.3m because the state’s “rainy day fund” was more important to the Governor and Legislature than elderly people that can’t get around on their own.

And finally, property owners, seeking to, you know, make the rules regarding what is or isn’t allowed on their property, a foundational concept of common law, will now have to allow the storage of guns in vehicles by permit holders. Its like a liberty vs. liberty deathmatch.

One good thing on the legislative front. The Shelby County Public Defender’s office did receive additional funding from the state to bring them closer to parity with other smaller PD’s. Don’t think this was kindness. Chances are, the state would have been sued by the County if this hadn’t happened.

Pandering, Pennies, and Professional Development Pullback

Taking a cue, perhaps, from his from his brother’s business practices, Gov. Haslam sought to bully the Feds into acquiescing to his less kind, less expansive form of the much touted but barely formed “Arkansas Plan” for Medicaid expansion. While the language may have been the normal flavor of milquetoast we’ve come to expect from the Governor, make no mistake about it, he was pandering to the far right wing of his base.

In an article in Saturday’s paper the Governor give a quick “post-mortem” of the session saying:

“I do think there was a lot accomplished,” said Haslam. “We passed a great budget that cuts taxes, adds to the Rainy Day Fund, gives a raise to employees, has really one of the largest increases for K-12 (school) funding that we’ve had in a long time and gave a significant amount of capital (construction funding) for higher education.

“And some significant legislation passed: one of the key issues I think is increasing access to and controlling the costs of higher education … allowing more families to afford college.”

I both covered and predicted this would be a post-session talking point. For a good explination of just who benefits from the tax cuts, check out paragraphs 6-8 at this article in the CA. Pretty sure you won’t find your income on the list.

Finally, in a dig to professional development in the state, the Governor closed 34 carreer centers statewide despite the unemployment rate increasing to 7.9%. I’m sure this money ultimately goes to business tax cuts somewhere, I just haven’t found it yet.

Thank God its over

While the worst may not have happened, this time, there’s still next year, and plenty of GOP majority to push it through. The State House and 17 State Senators, along with the Governor will be in campaign mode as they push to the November election. Expect lots of pet projects to come up again, and less strife between the House and the Senate as they push to get back to their districts as soon as possible so they can amass the cash needed to try and win another trip to Disneyland on the Cumberland.

In the mean time, take a breath and know you’re safe for a few short months…assuming, of course, the Governor’s Administration doesn’t go full on Rick Scott on us.

After this session, I’m not ruling anything out.

Yesterday was a pretty huge day, and I’m not talking about the massive CNN fail regarding an arrest in the Boston bombing case.

Nope, I’m talking about right here in Tennessee.

Here’s what Senator Jim Kyle had to say about the Ram-it-through budget session yesterday.

Gramatical errors in the heat of battle, and on twitter for that matter, be damned…he’s right.

Yesterday the Tennessee House and Senate approved the Governor’s budget, largely sight unseen.

One member of the House GOP caucus even complained that, and I’m paraphrasing – “…his constituents didn’t send him up here to vote on a budget without reading it.”

But that’s what happens when the date session ends is more important than the content of the bills that are passed.

Today, the legislature should adjourn for the year, which is comforting in one way, but also terrifying.

Terror in the Error

Legislative efficiency shouldn’t be measured in time. But that seems to be the measure the GOP leadership in the House and Senate prefers to measure their success.

When the legislature closes today, it will mark the shortest session in recent memory. But lets not confuse that with a lack of legislative decisions that will negatively impact people in this state for years to come.

Truth be told, there are plenty of ridiculous and unnecessary bills that were rammed through the legislature, and very little dissent on the majority side to stop them in their tracks.

The high point of dissent seems to be focused on just how dumb or widespread the dumb should be, as we saw will the killing of the Voucher bill, though other measures died in recent days as well.

A full accounting of what passed and what didn’t may take weeks to complete, but the budget decisions, and in particular the cuts, will be felt for some time.

Meals for Wheeler Dealers…Seniors, not so much

One of the most heartless decisions cuts $2.3m from the “Meals on Wheels” program. According to the Tennessean, the cuts would impact over 1000 seniors and deliver 150,000 fewer meals in the state.

What’s most sick about this decision is that the state has a projected $100m surplus in the upcoming budget year. In the past, these budget projections have been conservative. This year alone, we anticipated a $200m+ surplus. We hit that mark last month, with three more months in the fiscal year left.

cRAAM PAC’d

While the policy implications of the session that’s about to end will leave folks like me with weeks of work, we can’t forget the political implications of ending session early either.

Legislators can’t raise money during session until after May 15th. Ending session early means nearly a whole month of fundraising for folks.

While it may seem that this additional opportunity would be evenly distributed, the truth of the matter is the party in power has a distinct advantage over the minority party. Don’t think for a minute that this reality is lost on the GOP.

While the public face of a early end to session will be focused on the idea of “efficiency” that I mentioned above, behind the scenes there will be a great deal of work done to secure the political future of the majority party with an eye toward expanding their ranks in 2014.

Of course, neither group can start collecting anything until session ends. Once it does I’ll have a list of resources for you so you can not only follow the action, but support Democratic candidates.

According to a poll released in January, Bill Haslam has a 68% approval rating in Tennessee.

Elected as a moderate, the words out of the Governor’s mouth certainly don’t lead anyone to believe he’s a firebrand.

Of course, word and deed are two different things.

The truth is, Gov. Haslam’s positions further a system of government that focuses on helping those who don’t need it rather than helping those who do.

If you have had access to things like healthcare, education, and capital among others throughout your life, its fairly simple to rationalize that people who lack access, do so out of choice rather than necessity or circumstance.

Further, it is easy to rationalize that people are choosing to be personally irresponsible rather than circumstances getting in the way. Circumstances for someone who’s had all his worldly needs taken care of their whole life are just excuses, right?

From there, its a short trip to they don’t deserve help, which is the position of the GOP generally. They don’t believe that circumstance has anything to do with outcomes. They believe that if you’re not doing well, its because of something you did or didn’t do.

Of course, the reality is very different from this belief. And while Gov. Haslam’s commitment to this belief may not be as strong as other members of his party, its there, just obscured in his mushy language and by those firebrands who trumpet it from the highest mountains.

Smokescreen in the Statehouse

The most obvious example of this idea is found in the Tennessee General Assembly’s GOP caucus. To hear some in that august body tell it, folks that aren’t making it just aren’t trying hard enough.

Rep. Casada’s “Just get a job”, statement from the 2010 session is one of the better examples, though the just killed Oliver Twist Act comes in a close second, if only because the GOP Senate caucus itself understood the bill would show too much of the this belief to the general public.

To be honest, the list of outrageously ridiculous bills are too many to mention. But they do give the Governor something he desperately needs…cover to do things administratively…in the background…that ultimately accomplish the very things the legislature seeks to achieve.

Leading from the back of the line

While the Governor isn’t being held accountable for the actions of the legislature, he also hasn’t chosen to take a stand on issues that don’t match up to his moderate image. The public has largely given him a pass on the more radical ideals that have come up…and by extension, that pass has included measures that he actually supports.

The sum total of Gov. Haslam’s legislative victories include the recently passed Workers Comp Bill which will only hurt workers, a bill that weakens teacher unions, and by extension, makes teaching a much less attractive profession, passed tort reform which was supposed to be a huge job creator, but really just “put a price on the life of the weak”, as Eric Stewart put it, put an end to the inheritance tax by 2016 which only impacted 900 people a year, and worked to reduce the impact of the Hall Tax on investment income through bills SB980 and SB0198.

None of these bills mean a hill of beans to regular people in this state.

Haslam even, at first rejected calls by Democrats to lower the sales tax on food before including it in his legislative package this term.

So while companies and the wealthy saw their taxes and potential liability drop by thousands of dollars each, us folks down here at the bottom get to see a $3.65/yr. tax cut in sales tax on food…which at best will buy you a frozen burrito at your local “Quick Stop”.

That is supposed to be “moderate governance”.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

Both the legislative victories, and foil legislation, mean to distract people from real policy changes that are occurring in the agencies the Governor’s office has direct control over.

Over the past two years, the Governor has taken steps to tighten requirements for people that receive state services, without input or direction from the legislature. This effort hasn’t been reported on in the media. In fact, there are few who even know about it outside of providers. But it is happening, and the pinch is on those who need these services to, in some cases, survive.

This is all done in the service of “efficiency”. Unfortunately, efficiency really means making it as hard as legally possible for people to receive services they qualify for, which is a big part of the reason there are 98,000+ people who qualify for TennCare, but aren’t on the rolls. They are being turned away on technicalities, artificial barriers, rather than reality. Damn the consequences.

In the process, many of them are racking up huge hospital bills that lead to bankruptcies, or uncompensated care that puts the viability of hospitals in danger.

That’s not efficiency, its slow suicide.

Causing real harm

While the poverty rate in Tennessee started climbing in 2008 due to the financial crisis, little has been done on the state side to help people ensnared in the bad decisions that brought the crisis on.

You might think that falls on the Federal government, but because Tennessee basically runs all Federal social services through block grants, it is incumbent on the state to both apply for additional grant funds and budget for these things.

That hasn’t happened at all. In fact, every agency other than education was asked to cut 5% from their budget at the direction of Gov. Haslam last year.

That 5% may not seem like much, but when you consider many of those dollars are matched one for one (or more) by Federal dollars, it adds up quickly and to much more than 5%.

As for attracting jobs, the only job creation bill Gov. Haslam has passed is tort reform, mentioned above, which is actually associated with slower job growth.

In fact, every bill supported by the Governor, with the exception of the Democratic sponsored cuts to the sales tax, does nothing to help create jobs or give Tennesseans a leg up to bettering their circumstances. All of them help wealthier people save money, which has never created a single job ever.

And so, I circle back to the beginning. The reality for the 2.6m people Tennesseans who are either in poverty, or one month of earnings away from poverty, and the 2.2m more people who might make it through two or three months without earnings before they lose everything, this Governor has done absolutely nothing to benefit you at all.

That’s 75% of the state’s population. Nothing.

And while Gov. Haslam may currently enjoy a 68% approval rating for now, that goodwill will be short lived if conditions don’t change rapidly.

Based on his actions thus far, things will only get worse because he hasn’t done anything but support pennies of annual tax savings for most Tennesseans when he could have been investing in their future.

Because in the end, Gov. Haslam and his GOP friends in the legislature believe that if you aren’t making it, its not because of your circumstances, or bankers that tanked the financial system, or laws that actually slow job growth when they’ve been billed as job creators…its because of something you did to yourself.

So much for being a moderate.