GOP agreement on Gov. Bill Lee’s $1.9 billion corporate handout could come today
- 9 a.m. CT Conference Committee — SB 2103, Gov. Bill Lee’s single largest initiative in this year’s budget, would give property-rich corporations $4 billion worth of franchise tax breaks over the next decade ($400M annually) and authorize $1.6 billion worth of immediate cash payments to those same taxpayers.
- The Tennessean reported yesterday that more than half of handout, 53%, would go to out-of-state corporations.
- The House version of this bill includes the $400 million annual tax break for corporations, but the handout is about half the size at $700 million and it requires that the companies claiming a “refund” payment be named publicly.
- Yesterday, a House member of the committee said negotiations were at an “impasse.”
- Gov. Bill Lee – a wealthy business owner – says he included this massive corporate tax break in his budget to ward off potential legal challenges, but there is no lawsuit. Just a strongly worded letter – signed mostly by companies that would not even qualify for a handout under the bill.
- Independent tax experts say the law could have been fixed with a simple tax credit and the governor is conceding billions worth of revenue for no reason.
9 a.m. Conference Committee: Gov. Lee’s $1.9 billion corporate handout
1. SB 2103 *Johnson, Yager (HB 1893 by *Lamberth, Cochran)
Taxes, Franchise- As introduced, deletes the provision requiring that the measure of the franchise tax must not be less than the actual value of the real or tangible property owned or used by a taxpayer in this state; authorizes the commissioner of revenue to issue refunds under certain conditions to taxpayers who properly file a claim for refund for taxes paid under that provision.
Gov. Lee’s giant corporate tax handout.
From: Brandon Puttbrese <brandon.puttbrese@capitol.tn.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2024 8:13 AM
Subject: Top Senate Stories: Lee's $1.9B corporate handout // Bill blocks some customer lawsuits
Several noteworthy items on the Senate calendar today. Follow the meetings live here. And text me if you need an interview with a Democratic senator. –Brandon Puttbrese (615) 613-2598
Top Senate Stories
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Will the Senate adopt House Speaker Sexton’s unconstitutional juvenile crime bill?
- 11 a.m. Senate Message Calendar — SB 0624, by Sen. Brent Taylor, is a bill about blended sentencing and it passed the Senate with bipartisan support, but the House version is drastically different.
- The House bill, backed by Speaker Cameron Sexton, would allow judges to stack up to five years in adult prison on top of a juvenile sentence for kids as young as 14 who have committed some crimes. Another provision would require juvenile court judges to automatically transfer 16- and 17-year-olds to adult court when the defendant is facing first, second or attempted murder.
- Juvenile advocates say the measure could subject youth to incarceration in an adult prison without a jury trial – a likely violation of their constitutional rights.
$2M property tax break that only benefits wealthy landowners
- 11 a.m. Senate Regular Calendar — SB 1659 by Sen. Paige Walley could blow a new hole in county budgets by giving major landowners a new $2 million local property tax break.
- The bill increases the number of acres a landowner can claim as lower-tax “farm property” from 1,500 to 3,000.
GOP would block customer lawsuits against corporations failing to protect private data
- 11 a.m. Senate Regular Calendar — SB 2018, by Sen. Shane Reeves, would prevent customers from suing companies that fail to protect their private data.
- Current Tennessee law requires companies to take “reasonable care” to prevent private data from being stolen. Under this bill, customers would have to prove the company’s cybersecurity practices were insufficient – the most anti-consumer data policy in the country.
- More background from StateScoop.
Niceley bill eliminates two judges in Shelby County
- 11 a.m. Senate Regular Calendar — SB 2517, by Sen. Frank Niceley, would eliminate two judge positions in Shelby County and redistribute those offices to the 4th and 19th judicial districts.
- Republicans love to use Memphis as a punching bag when it comes to crime. But this Republican bill ties the hands of a community that is trying desperately to grapple with gun violence in a state with some of the worst gun safety laws in the nation.
11 a.m. Senate Regular Calendar
13. SB 0316 *Watson, Gardenhire (HB 0776 by *Helton-Haynes)
Taxes, Sales- As introduced, restricts the types of costs of a project within a certified border region retail tourism development district or regional retail tourism development district that can be covered by an apportionment of state sales and use taxes to a municipality or industrial development corporation; makes other revisions to the Border Region Tourism Development District Act and the Regional Retail Tourism Development District Act.
6. SB 0756 *Massey, Briggs (HB 1248 by *Powers)
Elder Abuse- As introduced, requires the department of human services to advertise prominently on the home page of the department's website the division of adult protective services' toll-free telephone service that enables citizens within the state to call the division free of charge to report abuse, neglect, or exploitation and to seek relevant assistance from the division in such matters.
15. SB 1000 *Yager (HB 1046 by *Vaughan)
Tennessee Housing Development Agency- As introduced, decreases, from nine to eight, the number of affirmative votes required by members of the agency's board of directors in order for the agency to approve the operation of its financial assistance programs, which support the financing of residential housing construction for lower and moderate income persons and families.
10. SB 1659 *Walley (HB 2054 by *Eldridge)
Real Property- As introduced, increases from 1,500 to 3,000 the number of acres of land that may be placed within one property tax jurisdiction for purposes of classification and assessment as agricultural, forest, or open space land; increases from 1,500 to 3,000 the maximum acreage available to a real property owner that may be classified as forest or open space land.
Tax break for wealthy landowners. Unfunded tax break that reduces revenue for local governments without replacing lost revenue.
5. SB 1771 *Lundberg (HB 2808 by *Hulsey)
Jails, Local Loc-ups - As introduced, makes the state liable and responsible for paying the expenses for HIV medication for inmates committed to a county jail or workhouse who previously received prescription medication to treat HIV or AIDS through a state department, agency, or program, including TennCare.
6. SB 2018 *Reeves (HB 2434 by *Terry, Sherrell)
Tort Liability and Reform- As introduced, declares a private entity to be not civilly liable in a class action resulting from a cybersecurity event unless the cybersecurity event was caused by willful, wanton, or gross negligence on the part of the private entity. - Amends TCA Title 29 and Title 47.
7. SB 2062 *White (HB 1881 by *Capley, Lamberth, Sexton, Garrett, Leatherwood, Barrett, Littleton, McCalmon, Keisling, Butler, Rudd, Boyd, Martin G, Bulso, Davis, Hill, Eldridge, Burkhart, Russell, Hicks T, Crawford, Carringer, Johnson C, Howell, Cepicky, Doggett, Hurt)
Criminal Offenses- As introduced, increases the penalty for assault against a law enforcement officer from a Class A misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum 30-day sentence and $5,000 fine to a Class E felony with a mandatory minimum 60-day sentence and $10,000 fine. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.
Unfunded mandate.
8. SB 2146 *Johnson, Swann (HB 2497 by *Hurt)
Disabled Persons- Requires the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) to establish and implement a residential pilot program to license two participants to provide permanent housing to more than four persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Requires one participant to be located in Williamson County and one participant to be located in Shelby County.
9. SB 2155 *Watson, Gardenhire (HB 2323 by *Hazlewood, Martin G, Gant)
Criminal Offenses- As introduced, increases the mandatory minimum confinement period for a defendant after a third or subsequent conviction of domestic assault to 90 days; upgrades the offense classification to a Class E felony upon a defendant's conviction for a sixth or subsequent qualifying misdemeanor. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.
10. SB 2158 *Haile, Yager (HB 2774 by *McCalmon, Bulso, Rudd, Davis, Capley, Carr, Littleton, Alexander, Carringer, Doggett, Cochran, Fritts, Hulsey, Sherrell, Williams, Martin B, Rudder, Boyd, Zachary, Garrett)
Immigration- establishes the procedure for the district attorney general conference to collect and compile data on the cost incurred by the state as a direct result of known illegal aliens charged or convicted of a criminal offense and submit a joint report to the Governor and the Speakers of the General Assembly.
11. SB 2332 *Yager (HB 1659 by *Hicks G)
Public Officials- As introduced, raises the base salary from $156,024 to $205,328 for district attorneys general and district public defenders.
12. SB 2517 *Niceley, Southerland (HB 2002 by *Farmer, Lamberth, Russell, Johnson C, Eldridge, Glynn, Capley, Burkhart, Grills, Garrett, Carr, Todd)
Judicial Districts- Passage of the proposed legislation will eliminate two current judge positions in the 30th judicial district, the judge in part IX of the criminal court effective July 1, 2024, and the judge in part VII of the circuit court effective September 1, 2024. Effective September 1, 2024, creates one additional trial court in each of the 4th and 19th judicial districts.
13. SB 2639 *Niceley (HB 2553 by *Reedy, Hulsey, Sherrell, Lynn, Howell, Gant, McCalmon, Russell, Zachary, Travis, Burkhart, Marsh, Sparks, Wright, Fritts, Hurt, Capley, Vital, Rudd, White, Raper, Grills)
Real Property- As introduced, restricts certain foreign investments in land located within this state through the creation of two separate prohibitions, one that restricts a prohibited foreign-party-controlled business from acquiring real property and another that restricts a prohibited foreign-party from acquiring agricultural land located within this state. - Amends TCA Title 43; Title 44; Title 47; Title 48 and Title 66.
14. SB 2659 *White, Watson, Powers (HB 2180 by *White, Hazlewood, Haston, Cepicky, Cochran, Lafferty, Faison, Garrett, Hurt, Moody)
Scholarships and Financial Aid- As introduced, expands student eligibility for a Tennessee future teacher scholarship to include students enrolled in an approved educator preparation program at Western Governors University.
15. SB 2710 *Taylor (HB 2814 by *Gillespie, Hardaway)
Criminal Offenses- As introduced, raises the penalty for the offense of drag racing from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony.
16. SB 2791 *Watson (HB 2940 by *Hicks T, Jernigan, Gillespie, Behn, Lynn, Whitson, Helton-Haynes, Rudd, Harris, Vital, Alexander, McCalmon, Carringer, Miller, Hardaway, Eldridge, Parkinson)
TennCare- As introduced, enacts the "TennCare for Working Individuals with Disabilities Act." - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 5.
17. SB 1137 *Oliver (HB 1229 by *Hemmer)
Housing- Authorizes a municipality to aid or otherwise provide assistance to an industrial development corporation (IDC) by granting, contributing, or pledging to or for the benefit of the IDC revenues derived from any source except property tax revenues, for certain projects.
18. SB 1260 *Akbari (HB 0351 by *Hardaway)
Industrial Development- authorizes industrial development corporations to be established and operated solely to assist and benefit minority-owned businesses, locally owned businesses, businesses that have 50 or fewer employees and annual gross revenues of $5,000,000 or less ("small businesses"), and commercial businesses for which fifty-one percent of the ownership interest is owned or held by women ("women-owned businesses). This bill provides that a commercial entity does not qualify as a locally owned business unless the subject business has conducted a majority of its operations under the jurisdiction of a local government's industrial development corporation for at least five years.
19. SB 1480 *Kyle, Lamar (HB 0689 by *Hardaway, Lamberth, Faison, Vital, Gant, Doggett, Fritts, Harris, Whitson, Eldridge, Warner, Moon, Burkhart, Helton-Haynes, Wright, Alexander, Hakeem)
Bail, Bail Bonds- As introduced, requires an officer to provide an alleged victim of certain criminal offenses with a document notifying the victim of the global positioning monitoring system used as a condition of bail.
20. SB 2530 *Watson (HB 2325 by *Hazlewood)
Boards and Commissions- As introduced, creates the artificial intelligence advisory council to recommend an action plan to guide awareness, education, and usage of artificial intelligence in state government that aligns with the state’s policies and goals and that supports public employees in the efficient and effective delivery of customer service.
21. SB 2539 *Niceley (HB 2118 by *Fritts)
Energy- As introduced, reconstitutes the state energy policy council by adding a representative of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a representative of the nuclear energy industry.
22. SB 2897 *Bailey (HB 2677 by *White)
County Officers- As introduced, increases the annual continuing education requirement for county commissioners from seven to eight hours; requires that the training be obtained by CTAS meetings; extends a $600 stipend to county commissioners for completion of annual training requirements.
23. SB 2979 Bowling
Tullahoma - Subject to local approval, rewrites the city charter.
Senate Message Calendar
1. SB 0624 *Taylor, Rose, McNally, Johnson (HB 0430 by *White, Gillespie)
Juvenile Offenders- As introduced, allows a juvenile court to impose a blended sentence on a child 16 years of age or older for a juvenile offense that would be a Class A, B, or C felony if committed by an adult; defines blended sentencing as a combination of any disposition otherwise provided for juveniles and a period of adult probation to be served after the child turns 18 years of age and which ends on or before the child's twenty-fifth birthday.
House version is drastically different. This bill would allow judges to stack up to five years in adult prison on top of a juvenile sentence for kids as young as 14 who have committed some crimes.
Another provision would require juvenile court judges to automatically transfer 16- and 17-year-olds to adult court when the defendant is facing first, second or attempted murder.
Juvenile advocates say the measure could subject youth to incarceration in an adult prison without a jury trial – in violation of constitutional rights.
2. SB 2749 *Haile (HB 2936 by *Faison)
Children- As introduced, enacts the “Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act."
3. SB 0795 by Gardenhire. (HB1259 by Vital.)
Real Property - Amends TCA Title 29 and Title 66. As introduced, removes ambiguous language and clarifies that a transfer of a possibility of reverter or right of entry by a holder other than the original grantor is invalid unless the validity of the future interest was determined by a final judgment in a judicial proceeding, or by a settlement among interested persons, prior to July 1, 2015.
House version has been amended to be an aggressive and unnecessary anti-squatter law.