State Economic Development Commissioner Matt Kisber said today that he’s concerned about English-language legislation being debated by the legislature.
Republican Senator Bill Ketron has filed a bill requiring driver’s license tests to be given in English.
Kisber says there are companies from around the world doing business in Tennessee. He says these types of English-language bills make it difficult for the state to market itself to companies interested in investing in Tennessee.
“You know, how do you go into German or Swedish speaking countries and tell them that we want them when in fact they can say, ‘well, you’re state policy doesn’t seem to substantiate or support that.”
Tennessee narrowly lost to Mississippi its bid for a Toyota sport utility vehicle assembly line this week. Kisber says Toyota didn’t mention English-language bills like the one vetoed in Nashville earlier this month as a factor in their decision, but he says the Japanese automaker’s Consul General has raised the issue on multiple occasions.
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