Capitol Update
April 22, 2022
Session is showing all signs of wrapping up soon. Legislators passed the FY2022-2023 budget on Thursday, and most committees have closed. However, there are several items still in progress, the most significant being the TISA education funding formula. Other noteworthy bills moving at the end of session include a couple of proposals sponsored by the two speakers. While it's fairly unusual for the speakers themselves to be the prime sponsor of the legislation, the bills have passed and now await the Governor's action.
Read TCSA's full article on the newly passed budget here.
TISA
After a relatively short hearing on the Governor’s proposed rewrite of education funding on Tuesday, the House Finance Subcommittee recommended the bill to the full Finance Committee. Although this time of year the legislature sometimes suspends rules to allow bills to move from one committee to the next, the motion this year was limited to budget-related bills and did not include TISA (SB2396/HB2143). After the subcommittee recommended the bill, the House Finance Committee scheduled it to be heard next Tuesday, April 26. In the Senate, the Senate Finance committee likewise declined to hear the bill this week, also pushing it back to April 26. This is the second week in a row that the Senate took no action on the bill. During the debate in the House on the state budget, Rep. Kelly Keisling asked whether the education funding formula was a part of the package being considered. Finance Chair Patsy Hazlewood of Hamilton County responded that there will be recurring money in the FY 2022-2023 budget that will be available to fund TISA in the following year, but that the provisions of TISA itself are not included in the budget bills. Keisling, like several House members who do not serve on either the Education or Finance Committees where the bill has been discussed, expressed some nervousness about the proposal and wanted to make sure it was not a part of what he was voting on yesterday.
Other Legislative Updates
At this point, virtually all committees other than the Finance Committees have closed for the year. The General Assembly is poised to wrap up its business next week. One issue that could have delayed adjournment was a desire to stay in session for ten days after the passage of the Transparency in Sentencing bill to override a veto by the Governor. It appears legislative leadership has some assurances that Governor Lee will sign the bill or allow it to become law without his signature, so that delay may have been avoided. TISA is the largest unresolved issue still remaining. It is set to be discussed in both Finance Committees next Tuesday and could then quickly move to the floor for a vote. There are a few bills remaining behind the budget that your associations will continue to monitor, but it is unlikely that many of them will get any further consideration. Once the session concludes, we will work on more comprehensive reports on legislation that impacts counties. Of course, we will also be providing an overview of the legislative session at the upcoming conference in Gatlinburg.