Small Businesses Get Advocate in State Government (Nashville Business Journal)


By: Dan Hieb


Joshua Helton has been named the the small business advocate for the state of Tennessee, comptroller Justin Wilson announced today during an event in Kingsport.

The General Assembly passed a law earlier this year to create the position, which is designed to give businesses with 50 or fewer employees a guide to help deal with the state’s bureaucracy and regulations. The law requires state departments to establish liaisons for Helton to reach out to when trying to help businesses.

The bill was sponsored by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower.

“Too often, government is in the position of placing new regulations on businesses that make it tougher for them to operate,” Ramsey said in a news release. “This law does just the opposite. Its purpose is to make the lives of those hard-working small business people easier.” 

Read More

Bredesen Praises Ramsey for Stepping Up on Budget (Nashville Public Radio) 


By: Daniel Potter


Today Governor Phil Bredesen praised Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey for his work brokering a deal to pass a budget through the state legislature. And the Democratic governor says he hopes other Republican lawmakers mature in Ramsey’s model.

In the state House of Representatives, the session that just ended was unpredictable, and at times volatile, as Republicans only recently took control of the lower chamber.

Bredesen says he hopes they’ll “settle down,” using as an example the senate, where Republican Ramsey took over a few years ago.

“In the end you have to pass budgets and do those kinds of things, and I thought Ron Ramsey at the end stepped up and agreed to some things and found out some ways to make some compromises to get the budget passed, and I think they’ll have to do that.”

Bredesen says another factor adding to legislative conflict was his lame-duck status as an outgoing governor.  

Read More

Ramsey Quizzes Corridor as 'Dog and Pony' Show (Chattanooga Times Free Press)


By: Andy Sher


NASHVILLE — Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey said Wednesday that the Tennessee Valley Corridor and the organization’s summits, promoted by his Republican gubernatorial rival U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp as a campaign centerpiece, never have passed the “smell test” in his opinion.

“I’ll just say I’ve always thought it didn’t pass the smell test in the fact that there was an awful lot of money coming from Washington, D.C., that ended up getting to (public relations firm) Akins-Crisp,” Lt. Gov. Ramsey told reporters. “We’ve known that for years. What work product have they actually produced?”

He questioned whether the Corridor is “just a dog and pony show that makes people feel good or does it actually do something?”  

Read More

House Speaker: Agreement reached on state budget (The Tennessean)


By: Chas Sisk


House Speaker Kent Williams says he has reached a verbal agreement with Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey on the state budget after a meeting at 2 p.m. today.

Williams told reporters that he has agreed to drop his support for a fish hatchery in his district. Ramsey agreed to support several initiatives sought by the House, such as funding for the Governor's Office of Children's Care Coordination, which combats infant mortality.

"Ramsey is a reasonable guy, and I am, too," Williams said, "once we could get together and get all the politics out of it and talk gentleman to gentleman."

Williams said details of the agreement could be announced as soon as today. Both the House and the Senate canceled floor sessions scheduled for 2 p.m. Both chambers are scheduled to meet again tomorrow morning. 

Read More

Ramsey leads Senate to cut off budget talks (The Tennessean) 

Read More

Tennessee budget snagged over fish hatchery fight (Memphis Commercial Appeal)

Lawmakers balk at funds for trout, but include aid to Civil Rights Museum, St. Jude


By Richard Locker


NASHVILLE -- A fish hatchery mired in politics -- and some say revenge -- is the biggest item holding up passage of a state budget, keeping the legislature in session weeks after its targeted adjournment and costing taxpayers at least $24,420 each day the battle drags on.

Leaders of both parties said budget negotiations broke down Thursday over a proposed $16.1 million trout hatchery in Elizabethton. That's the hometown of House Speaker Kent Williams, the Republican-turned-Independent whose stunning election as speaker last year angered the GOP when he joined all 49 House Democrats in voting for himself over the Republican Caucus nominee who would have won.

Senate Republicans and most House Republicans are locked down against the fish hatchery and other local projects -- including a proposed $5 million for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis -- that they say are "pork barrel." Williams, most Democrats and a handful of House Republicans are standing behind the proposal.

"It's political payback. That's all it is. They are mad at Kent Williams because he is speaker of the House," said House Democratic Caucus chairman Mike Turner of Nashville.

Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, agreed that the fish hatchery is the top budget holdup but rejected the contention that Republicans oppose it because Williams supports it.

"Absolutely, positively, unequivocally not. This has to do with the project that's trying to be funded in a time when we're cutting our budget," Ramsey said.

"And it's more than just a fish hatchery. I do believe it is a symbol of just out-of-control spending." 

Read More

House-Senate budget deadlock heats up (Knoxville News Sentinel)

Further attempts toward resolving dispute postponed


By: Tom Humphrey


*Tom Humphrey's blog on politics and legislative news in Tennessee

NASHVILLE - Rhetoric over a House-Senate budget deadlock grew more heated Thursday as further attempts toward resolving the dispute were postponed until next week.

"We really are down now to quibbling over a fish hatchery," said Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, declaring all members of the Senate's Republican majority are "willing to stay as long as it takes to avoid having pork barrel projects."

The House budget plan calls for using $16.1 million of an anticipated $341 million in extra federal funding, if it becomes available, for building a fish hatchery in Carter County, home of House Speaker Kent Williams. Ramsey said that provision in the "contingency" spending plan has become a "symbol of running things the Tennessee way and not the Washington way" - a phrase Ramsey also uses regularly as a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Ramsey said Senate Republicans also are "locked down" against other "pork barrel" spending in the House plan, such as a $5 million appropriation to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. There is room for negotiation on other differences between the House and Senate, such as a House-backed $500 payment to state employees and teachers, he said.

Williams was not available for comment after Ramsey made his remarks at a news conference late Thursday. But he earlier defended the hatchery proposal as following through on a long-term plan. The property already has been purchased and the state has spent $800,000 to develop a plan for building the hatchery, which he said will provide a needed boost to regional tourism.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner said the attitude of Senate Republicans, joined by some Republicans in the House, is "political payback" aimed at Williams, who last year joined with 49 House Democrats to elect himself speaker.

"They're using the fish hatchery because they think they can gain political points on that," Turner said. "Ramsey is driving this machine."

Turner said the Senate plan "is the most political budget I've ever seen," making unnecessary cuts in addition to $1.1 billion in cuts already made last year and incorporated into the next year plan. 

Read More

$120 Million Budget Hole Left to Fill (Knoxville News Sentinel) 

Read More