by Matthew Hurtt
March 1, 2010
Some Nashville lawmakers seek to circumvent Tennessee Department of Transportation "principle and precedent" by hiding a special provision for one Murfreesboro businessman in what legislators call a "caption bill." Knoxville News Sentinel's Nashville Bureau Chief Tom Humphrey investigated the nature of "caption" legislation last May:
Late in most every session of the Tennessee General Assembly, fresh new ideas are brought onto the legislative scene through caption bills, a part of the lawmaking art that may be seen as institutionalized sneakiness.
Filed by Charles Sargent in the House and Doug Jackson in the Senate, "An Act to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 54" (HB0150/SB0094) on its face seeks to remove a funding provision for memorial signs on Interstates and highways, but lawmakers in the Senate Transportation Committee recently removed that section altogether and replaced it with a provision which changes the nature of the bill entirely, providing a legislative kickback to one of the General Assembly's most generous contributors.
According to the Murfreesboro Post, firearms manufacturer Ronnie Barrett filed suit against Rutherford County and the State of Tennessee early last year over a dispute involving the extension of an access road which runs in front of the plant.
The Senate Transportation Committee discussed the bill on February 16, when Senator Jim Tracy, Chairman of the committee, tacked an amendment onto the bill, which would allow for a 50' easement, eventually permitting construction of the aforementioned access road. Barrett has given Tracy thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, as well as expressed interest and shown support for Tracy's campaign for Congress. In fact, nearly 40% of Barrett's total campaign contributions from 2004 to 2008 were funneled into Tracy's coffers.
Additionally, Doug Jackson, who sponsored the caption bill in Senate, owns one of Barrett's firearms, which he unsuccessfully attempted to sell last April. There is no known connection between Barrett and the bill's House sponsor, but sources indicate that Representative Charles Sargent is "less than enthusiastic" about the legislation.
Watch the Senate Transportation Committee uncomfortably debate the merits of the bill:
Senators Tracy and Jackson both awkwardly fumble as they attempt to move the bill out of committee. Senator Jackson refuses to mention the name of the company which will benefit from the amendment, saying the word "company" rather than Barrett Firearms at least eight times. Jackson further explains that the legislature rarely interferes with TDOT's normal operation and that this special provision circumvents "principle and precedent." Senator Tracy, who filed the amendment, then asks Jackson to clarify that the amendment "makes the bill," as if he did not already know what his own amendment accomplished.
Currently, the bill is sitting in the Finance, Ways & Means Committee on the Senate side and in the Transportation Committee on the House side, awaiting assignment to a sub-committee. You can follow the bill's progress here.
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Matthew Hurtt earned his B.A. in History and Political Science from Middle Tennessee State University in 2009. He lives and works in the Washington, D.C. area. Read his blog at http://matthewhurtt.com and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/matthewhurtt
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