TSBA Wants Taxing Authority for School Boards

Tennessee School Boards decided last week they want the ability to raise their own money for funding education. The association’s 300 delegates met in Nashville, and 65-percent voted in favor of giving school boards across the state taxing authority.

Governor Phil Bredesen says it’s almost time for the state to back off from big industrial developments and the incentive packages that come with them.

A shrinking state budget threatens legislation that would provide small business owners an incentive to offer health insurance to employees.

Metro Council members were unable to come to any agreement last night, on whether to ban business owners from displaying goods in front of their stores.

Governor Phil Bredesen has been sternly reminding departments that they must cut somewhere between 10 and 15 percent out of their budgets for the next fiscal year. But he got one piece of encouraging news yesterday.

Over this year and the next, universities in Tennessee’s Board of Regents system will likely see a 20 percent reduction in state funding.

Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners has applied to sale up to $95 million dollars in stock to the U.S. Treasury. The federal government has been buying stakes in banks in order to shore up the credit markets.

Tennessee Republicans say they plan to make the process of selecting the state’s constitutional officers more transparent.

The state Department of Transportation may deviate from its historical policy of pay-as-you-go and take out 350-million dollars in bonds to help stimulate the economy. At the governor’s budget hearings today, transportation commissioner Gerald Nicely said he wants to issue “garvee” bonds.

The state employees union says personnel cuts shouldn’t be necessary to balance this year’s budget. It suggests using the state’s 1.2-billion dollars of reserves to protect jobs.