The 104th session of the General Assembly finished up its work this weekend, having passed major pieces of legislation, namely Cover Tennessee and the state’s 26-billion dollar budget in the final days.
Both democrats and republicans are already focused running re-election campaigns for this year. House Minority Leader Bill Dunn said returning money to taxpayers as well as ethics and eminent domain were several strong issues for republicans this year.
“Well I think we started out this year with a special session on ethics and the republicans really pushed that to make the laws a lot stronger than they would have been otherwise. And then eminent domain was a huge topic and once again the republicans stepped forward and said ‘we’re going to make this bill stronger, we’re going to protect property owners.”
Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle, a democrat, said Governor Phil Bredesen’s health care initiative, Cover Tennessee, was probably the most important issue addressed by lawmakers this year.
“I think the Cover Tennessee program will one day be viewed as a great success, far greater than people realize who voted for and or against it. I believe we handled a surplus of funds responsibly, and tried to help as many people as fairly as we could.”
Kyle says he “firmly believes” he’ll be majority leader next year, referencing the republican’s current advantage in the senate.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM