In 2009,  we have a favorable wind of renewal available to re-establish virtues, moral principles, and moral quality to our government at all levels. In foreign policy let us be done with torture, rendition and the deliberate misleading of the public in the guise of justifying action that leads to placing our men and women in uniform unnecessarily in harm’s way and demolishing governments of other nations. Let this year be the year to bury the order of pre-emptive military intervention against what we perceive as nefarious nations.

At the community level, in Tennessee, let’s be done with partisan political warfare that is paralyzing and  polarizing our public life.

In honesty, renewal and positive change change will not be achieved in 90 days, or Obama’s first hundred days. It will take time to lead our nation and renew the concept of common good over individual gain and self-interest at every level of our lives, personally and nationally.

The wisdon of President Obama is appropriate here when he warned us that the cure for our economic plight will take months adding up to years. Our political representatives with our prayerful support and suggestions are capable  of serious reform in congressional ethics. National and personal changes can be substantial rather than cosmetic.

In our community and the nation, we are eager and in anticipation of a new tone and mature new way of practically meeting real needs. Honesty and transparency are moral values that we cherish and treasure. These qualities can be delivered by our city, state and national government. Even when the new is bad or calls for discipline in living and sacrifice, we must be receptive and transparent.

In this year we have the opportunity to refresh and renew core demonstrated principles. Politicians who violate our moral principles and laws must answer and be accountable for their deeds. No slap on the wrist for such behavior. Bribery, fraud and tax evasion in a reform government will be dealt with harshly, to include prison terms.The recent politicians — Republican and Democratic — Duke Cunningham, Tom Delay, William Jefferson, Mark Foley for their crimes are examples of the law of accountability at work.

Renewal for us personally is to rededicate ourselves to democratic principles; let’s bury the nefarious partisanship. Cooperation instead of partisan argument and resentment will precipitate renewal.

With the opening of school just around the corner, parents will reap the benefit of a three-day tax-free shopping weekend (August 1-3) just in time to stock up on school supplies, clothing and even a computer — anything needed to get the school year off to a good start. All without paying the 9.5% sales reaped by state and local government.

The battle for bargains kicks off at one minute past midnight tonight, and will continue through Sunday at midnight (if your favorite store is open that late).

What can you buy?

School clothing (items must be priced at $100 or less, which means no $130 deluxe sneakers), all the paper, pencils, notepads, binders, art supplies and other items your child will to start the school year off right. Need a computer? Anything valued at $1500 or less is tax exempt. At 9.5%, thats a saving of $142 and change.

For details on what you can and cannot buy, check out the listings at the State Tax Holiday website. Items ordered/sold via internet, phone, e-mail and traditional mail are also exempt.

With temperatures expected to soar to the century mark over the weekend, with projected heat indices even higher, make sure your car has plenty of coolant for that rambling around town, bring along water to drink (in a cooler with ice, if possible), or consider doing your shopping in the early morning or later evening hours.

And please, with the kind of heat the weather service is calling for this weekend, do not leave your children or your family pet unattended in your vehicle. A car in direct will heat up to 140 degrees in a matter of minutes.

Now, if only the state would ease off their portion of the gas for the weekend…

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President Hall took the time to personally communicate both the increase and his plan for making up the remaining budget shortfall to all of APSU’s students. In his plan, the budget for instruction is to be held sacred and remain untouched. Similarly, the President hopes to avoid cutting any teaching positions, filled or vacant (for the purposes of the budget, money is allocated as if these positions will be filled), another erstwhile goal. Unfortunately, this leaves two areas that will receive big cuts, maintenance and operations, two areas in which Austin Peay has already been struggling in recent years to meet needs. Announcements of various service interruptions in things such as water, electricity, or heat and air due to failure of campus infrastructure are common enough that students expect those emails.

However, President Hall isn’t at fault here. As much as he can do, he does not have control over how the Tennessee Legislature appropriates funding, and he is simply doing the best he can to compensate for their bad decision making. The figures on pork spending for this session aren’t in yet, but looking at last year’s expenditures reveals more than 260 million dollars in spending that is questionable at best, and an amount that is more than enough to cover the shortfalls in essential budgetary items.

Top on the list is Boll Weevil eradication, yes, you heard right. Fiscal year 2007-2008 (that’s last year) featured 6.5 million dollars to combat the little buggers. Yes, they don’t do very much for cotton crops, but according to most estimates there are less than 9,000 of the quarter inch long insects alive in the state in total, meaning taxpayers are spending $730 dollars per insect to attempt to kill them. The kicker, the Boll Weevil population has been stable for roughly a decade. Fortunately, its biggest proponent, Senator Wilder (who coincidentally was president of the Tennessee Cotton Ginner Association in the past and still owns Longtown Gin and Supply Co.) has gone the way of the dodo in the Senate. Hopefully this abysmal waste of resources goes with him.

Next up, 70 million dollars over five years (12.2 million dollars per year) to pay farmers to grow switch grass (a type of prairie grass that most farmers would call a weed) instead of corn to produce ethanol. Before the environmentalist nut-jobs start pointing out this is investing in alternative energy, let’s take a look at something. Ethanol is NOT, I’ll repeat NOT, a viable alternative to gasoline. For starters, ethanol is more expensive to make than gasoline, period, end of story, not changing in the near future, which means it WILL cost more per gallon that gasoline. Second, ethanol contains approximately 30% less energy than gasoline per unit volume. This translates to the Ford Focus at 29 miles to a gallon on gasoline achieving only 20 miles per gallon on ethanol, meaning you have to buy and burn more ethanol to go the same distance. That leads to point number 3, biofuels made from Switch grass grown on land intended for corn production (a staple crop in Tennessee by the way, and a highly profitable one) leads to a 50% increase in carbon emissions as compared to growing the corn and using the gasoline instead. Point 4, this also makes no economic sense. According to the United Nations there is a global shortage of staple food grains including corn. So, instead of growing corn, which could be sold on the world market to help such a shortage, Tennessee wants its farmers to cease corn production (exacerbating the shortage) and grow economically unviable (if it was profitable on its own, why would we pay them?) switch grass. Axing this alone would cover almost the entire budget cut that the TBR system raised tuition to cover.

Corruption also rears its ugly head in Tennessee, at least last year. Rep. Janis Sontany (D-Nashville), put in for $52,000 in earmarks to various organizations, she sits on the board for all of them. She also sent $10,000 to Seth Norman’s drug court. He provided her with generous campaign donations. Rep. Mary Pruitt (D-Nashville) set aside $55,000 for a group she helped found, plus she’s an ex-officio board member. Rep. Barbara Cooper asked for $61,000 for organizations that her own campaign claims she is a key member of.Rep. Joe Towns (D-Memphis) pushed for $10,000 for his college fraternity (which is even more suspect and worthless than the previous examples). This doesn’t even begin to include kickbacks given because of friendship or political contributions.

Speaking of corruption, how about how legislators have been using their general office funds (taxpayer funded general fund that is meant to cover things like paper, printer cartridges, schoolhouse flags, etc) to pay for their campaigns. Again, Rep. Towns takes the cake for the most egregious offender, spending $2,251 to send out campaign newsletters. At least four other legislators have done so. Legislators are also very fond of abusing their Per Diem allowances. House Speaker Pro-Tempore Lois DeBerry (D-Memphis), Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville), and the Mister Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington) all billed the state for more than $30,000 in Per Diem. All three of them billed the state for a trip to China. Speaker Pro-Temp DeBerry billed the state a total of $31,967 with 14 out of state trips. That is, she billed the state for her full allowance for 199 days. That’s far longer than the legislature is supposed to be in session, by about 109 days, actually. Just what were the taxpayers funding on those extra days exactly? Sen. Doug Jackson (D-Dickson) and Rep. Towns both claimed more than $25,000 is Per Diem. In total 22 legislators claimed more in Per Diem than their $18,123 base salary (Speaker Naifeh has a base salary of 3 times that, by the way and he was still in the top 3 for Per Diem billing). Speaking of outrageous though, how about Reps. Sherry Jones and Brenda Gilmore (both D-Nashville) who live less than 10 miles from their offices at legislative plaza and still claimed better than $22,000 in Per Diem allowances. These ladies sleep in their own homes every night, so how they managed to spend $22,000 on room and board traveling to Nashville will forever remain a mystery.

Also, cronyism is alive and well in Bredesen’s administration. State employees received a 3% raise last year; Bredesen’s cabinet received raises that averaged 23%, for not doing their jobs. DCS failed to investigate child deaths in a timely manner, then failed and refused to share the findings with prosecutors and judges. The commissioner received a 63% pay raise. Economic Development failed to collect final reports on over $865,000 worth of grants. Are we rewarding good service, or handing out bones here?

On loose ends in parks and recreation, the state lost over 1.4 million dollars on golf courses, $500,000 on a feasibility study of making a “fishing trail” and “stocking it with fish.” Grant, on a technicality, most parks cost the state money for no profit, but the golf courses charge for use and are supposed to be self sustaining. Only two of the fourteen courses were self sustaining, the two located in urban areas. The other 12 scattered across rural Tennessee in such odd places and Chester County lost money at insane rates. As for the fishing trail idea, the feasibility study is half a million, wagers are open for how much the actual project, the environmental impact studies, continual stocking expenses, etc will cost the state, for no apparent reason.

Another odd project is the resurrection of the Tennessee River ferry between Houston and Benton counties. It cost the state 1.2 million dollars to put the service in operation again, and costs approximately $1,380 per day to operate. Twenty-three people per day pay $.87 to make use of it, meaning the taxpayers are subsidizing 98% of each passenger’s fare (if one were to charge those 23 people the $59 and change their tickets would need to cost to equal the cost of running the service) for something that 99.99… of the people in this state will never hear of, much less use.

This brief rundown cannot even begin to account for every piece of unneeded spending in Tennessee. The lavish and decadent spending at the Governor’s mansion remains, the so-called obligatory spending on the abysmal socialist failure that is TennCare remains unchecked, and there is still no guarantee that money legitimately and wisely appropriated to different agencies was spent wisely or well, or will be in the coming fiscal year. Perhaps instead of asking for hard decisions on spending cuts, Governor Bredesen and the General Assembly should look to remove some of these outrageous and unneeded items of spending first that no one will notice or miss.

This week, the House moves spring sales tax holiday to April, tax breaks for disabled homeowners approved, scrap metal theft legislation moves to budget subcommittee, green laws continuing movement through committees, border dispute resolution expected on House floor soon, and animal abuse registry in full judiciary committee

NASHVILLE (Mar. 6) – This week the Tennessee House of Representatives passed legislation changing the spring sales tax holiday from the weekend of March 21 to the weekend of April 25.

“There were a lot of people who felt that having the sales tax holiday on the same weekend as Easter would limit people’s ability to take advantage of the savings as well as take away from the importance of the holiday,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Randy Rinks (D-Savannah). “We were glad that with last year’s budget surplus we’re able to give back to those who deserve it the most – the taxpayer.”

The spring sales tax holiday weekend will take place on April 25 through 27 and will be available on all products designated school supplies. For a complete list of products that qualify for the sales tax holiday, go to http://www.tntaxholiday.com/.

This week the House also passed a bill expanding property tax relief to disabled homeowners. Passing unanimously, House Bill 2455 raises the maximum income for disabled homeowners to $24,000 for the 2007 tax year.

“This legislation continues the momentum we set last year to provide tax relief for Tennessee’s most vulnerable citizens like our seniors and our disabled military veterans,” said Representative Joe Pitts (D-Clarksville), prime sponsor of the legislation. “Our job is to continue to look for ways to help those who need it.”

Scrap Metal Theft Legislation Moves to Budget Subcommittee

The consequences of scrap metal theft continue to make headlines in the news and this week a bill to combat those crimes was moved out of the House Government Operations Committee for hearings in the Budget Subcommittee of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee.

“As the economy continues to waiver, and as prices on precious metals like copper continue to skyrocket, we will continue to see scrap metal theft increase,” said Chairman Mike McDonald (D-Portland). “This bill is vital to combating this growing crisis in Tennessee and needs swift passage through the House.”

House Bill 2433 would require anyone buying or selling scrap metal to register with the Department of Commerce and Insurance, and would prohibit immediate payment for purchased of copper, catalytic converters and air conditioner evaporator coils. The bill would also increase criminal penalties and civil forfeitures for those who violate the law.

“Those who own businesses dealing in scrap metal are just as liable as those who would steal and sell it,” said McDonald. “We have to deter this illegal practice and protect the honest and hardworking citizens of this state.”

Green Laws Continuing Movement through Committees

A number of bills focusing on the reduction of Tennessee’s energy consumption and production of greenhouse gases made their way through the committee system this week.

“As private businesses start to embrace energy conservation and green policies, so should we in the state,” said Rep. Gary Moore (D-Nashville). “We must do our part to protect our surroundings and keep it safe and clean for the next generation.”

Three bills focusing on the energy management and conservation were placed on the calendar of State and Local Government. House Bills 2815, 2816 and 2817, sponsored by Chairman Mike McDonald, all deal with expanding and developing new strategies for energy conservation among state departments and agencies. A bill by Rep. Moore, that is expected to be heard in House Government Operations next week, encourages the State Building Commission to adopt rules and regulations requiring design, construction and certification of state building to fall in line with that of equivalent green standards.

“Living green no longer means living out of the mainstream,” said Moore. “Our cars, our homes, our farms, our towns all have ways to be less destructive on the environment and we should embrace those tools in our state government.”

Border Dispute Resolution Expected on House Floor Soon

A bill rejecting the Georgia Legislature’s request to form a multi-state study group with the goal of redrawing the state line between Georgia and Tennessee moved swiftly through committee and is expected on the House floor soon.

House Joint-Resolution 919 states that Tennessee will not engage in talks regarding changes to its nearly 200-year-old state border with Georgia and that any attempt to do so by Georgia would be defeated by precedents upheld by the United States Supreme Court.

“I understand that the drought situation in Georgia, specifically in Atlanta, is quite severe and I can sympathize with what the people of Georgia are going through,” said House Major Leader Gary Odom (D-Nashville). “But moving a nearly two-hundred-year-old border so you can steal another state’s water is flat wrong and does nothing to address the real problem.”

The joint resolution is expected to be taken up next week.

Animal Abuse Registry in Full Judiciary Committee

Finally, a bill that would put those convicted of animal abuse on a registry list similar to the current sex offender registry is expected to be taken up by the full House Judiciary Committee next week.

“Most everyone I know, like myself, is an animal lover whose heart breaks when you hear stories of animal abuse and cruelty,” said Chairman Janis Sontany (D-Nashville). “Having a registry for those who commit such acts will not only be a great way to monitor abusers, but hopefully will work as a deterrent for those who might think to hurt an animal.”

The “Tennessee Animal Abuser Registration, Tracking and Verification Act of 2008” establishes registration, verification and tracking requirements for an animal abuser, which means any person who commits aggravated cruelty to animals, felony animal fighting, or bestiality. The requirements under this bill are similar to the present law requirements for sex offenders, with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) maintaining the registry.

The bill is slated to be reviewed by the full committee on Wednesday of next week.

There were a number of individuals from Clarksville that attended the meeting with high hopes of being able to present issues related to Title VI and hear some possible solutions.  Sadly their hopes were dashed because the official meeting had to be canceled.

Pastor Jerry Jerkins of Clarksville, one of the Commissioners that does attend the meetings regularly, voiced his concern with the possibility of submitting his resignation.  The Commission Director, Dr. John Birdsong, could not explain why the absent commissioners chose not to attend the meeting.  Some of the members present questioned whether or not the Governor was aware of the failure of the Commission.  A suggestion was made to have the Commissioners request an audience with the Governor.  However, since there was no quorum a motion could not be submitted for a vote.