The 113th General Assembly kicked off last week and to get a preview of what to expect WPLN’s Political Reporter Blaise Gainey sat with Crossville Republican Cameron Sexton who’s been elected to another term as House Speaker.
During the interview they talked about the Governor’s main goal this session of fixing Tennessee’s roadways and addressing issues at Department of Children’s Services. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Blaise Gainey: Infrastructure is a top priority for the governor. Where does it rank for you?
House Speaker Cameron Sexton: Well, I mean, it’s up there. We do have congestion. Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, they all have congestion issues. There’s probably more in Nashville than the other parts, but there’s six areas in our state. And so, we have to fix it. So, looking at alternatives, whether it’s express lanes, choice lanes, rail, a combination of everything, I think that’s something we have to look at.
BG: Is any of your caucus members considering a bill for toll lanes or choice lanes. Is there any one idea that they’re really sticking on?
CS: I think [Department of Transportation] Commissioner [Butch] Ely is going to propose legislation. And, you know, Texas, Florida, Georgia use express expressways as a fee base, partnering with a private company that builds it, maintains it and collects the fee. Doesn’t mean that we’ll change our way of continuing to expand roads and build new roads.
I will say, anybody who’s listening to this, the roads you’re currently driving on today will not be affected as a choice lane or express lane.
BG: There was a report that came out earlier this week that talked about, I believe 33% of children are moved to two or three more homes in a year. Children sleeping on in office buildings, a lot of retention issues, heavy caseloads for a lot of workers. How do we start to fix that issue?
CS: We need more foster parents. We need more places to where you can have kids in certain areas. Transitioning them a lot is not the best for them. It’s probably what they’ve been doing their whole lives. So, you’re not really benefiting the child, you know.
As far as not having enough staff, we don’t pay them enough. We don’t compete with the private market. We’ve always said at the state government level, hey, our benefits and pension plan should be enough for you. … That’s not the case anymore. And so, when you can’t hire staff, your caseload is going to be higher, unfortunately. And so, I think the governor just did a package to increase pay for all state employees significantly, especially DCS people who are caseworkers.
BG: Is there something that can get done sooner? And I know obviously the budget will get passed, but it’ll be months until that happens. And it seems like this is an urgent situation. Is there any expedited process?
CS: I think DCS has sent … an expansion letter where they’ve asked for funding from reserves from last year’s budget to go ahead and increase pay for DSS, DCS workers and stuff. So that’s coming.
BG: All right. And on abortion. Switching topics here. You said you would support, including exceptions for rape, incest, in the life of the mother. There’s been a bill to that effect filed by Democrats. Could you support that?
CS: Not that one, because when you look at the language, it says that you could do any of those three up to the time the baby is born. I think that’s extremely too far to go. And so, I can’t support that. There should be some limitations on when you can do that.
I think if you’re looking at what we’re currently doing right now, we got to go back in on the trigger bill and clarify some things. From all the conversation I had, people say the life of the mother is in there that was the intent. It may be the intent, but people don’t see it. So, we got to go back and clarify.
I think the other thing you got to look at is the affirmative defense for physicians. That’s the other issue that they have where they’re presumed guilty on the front end instead of presumed innocent. We need to flip that back to the original judicial system. Doctors are afraid to do anything because they’re unclear what the trigger bill does or doesn’t do because there’s so many variations of opinions.
So, I think you’ll see two separate bills, one that will deal with the trigger bill and clarifying what the intent was and trying to create less gray in there. Probably other bills to expand, the other two exceptions, rape and incest.
BG: Moving on to criminal justice, you told The Tennessean that you’re looking at a three strikes sentencing law. Could you explain how that would work?
CS: Well, it would be on violent criminals. I mean, how many times can you be — I’m not saying charged — but how many times can you be convicted of a violent crime, especially aggravated carjackings, and you continue to get out and you continue to do the same thing? At some point, there should be a thing that says you’ve done it enough, you’re just going to go to jail for life.
Now, I will say I also agree with a lot of other groups, and I agree with Governor Lee as well. Putting people in prison only solves part of the problem. But you have to focus on rehabilitation, on programming, on intervention programs, especially with juveniles. And so we need to do more to try to keep people out of the judicial system.
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