If Gov. Bill Haslam is trying to build political capital, he’s making the right move by trying to light a fire under local officials.
He might also want to turn up the flame on his own game.
The Republican governor recently said in a speech to the Tennessee Municipal League that local leaders need to get more engaged with a “changing Legislature.”
Afterward, he told reporters institutions such as lobbyists, media, chambers of commerce and hospitals just don’t hold the same influence they once did with the General Assembly.
Clearly, Haslam remains frustrated with the Legislature’s refusal to pass Insure Tennessee, a market-based proposal to expand Medicaid for some 280,000 Tennesseans who fall into a gap between TennCare and the Affordable Care Act.
Those institutions and big cities supported the measure.
“I agree with Gov. Haslam,” Nashville Mayor Karl Dean says. “Cities have unique needs, so it’s critical that we make sure the members of the General Assembly understand those needs. The voters and elected officials of counties, cities and towns understand their needs and priorities.”
While Dean doesn’t get specific about the issues in which a communication breakdown exists between local government leaders and the General Assembly, it’s apparent he’d like more to be done to bridge that gap.
“We’ll keep working to make sure the Legislature understands what an economic engine Nashville and Middle Tennessee have become and how much our city and region contribute to the state’s success,” he says.
Nashville was at the heart of disagreement over the guns-in-parks bill earlier this year when the National Rifle Association brought its convention to the city. Conventional thinking was the NRA had enough political power to push the bill through before its ranks came to town so conceal-carry permit holders could pack their guns in local parks.
While the timing didn’t quite work out that way, the Legislature passed the bill, and Haslam signed it, even though he said repeatedly he opposed the measure as governor and during his tenure as mayor of Knoxville. (Maybe that’s why he needs local officials to raise their tone.)
Lobbying for local control
Knoxville’s “umbrella position” with legislators is to “retain as much local control over local issues as possible. And that’s something we have some continual input to both directly and through our lobbyists,” says Bill Lyons, deputy to Mayor Madeline Rogero.
The city has its own paid lobbyist and retains a lobbyist who works for the state’s four largest municipalities.
“Obviously, we did not want the guns-in-parks legislation to pass that did,” Lyons says. “We also wanted to make sure the Hall (income) tax, the city portion of that, was not cut. We rely on that revenue as a significant part of our budget.”
The new guns-in-parks law strips the authority of local governments to prohibit conceal-carry permit holders from taking guns into parks. Hall income tax legislation approved this year raises the income level for paying taxes on interest and dividends.
So Knoxville lost on both of those accounts, even though Lyons says the mayor’s office has a good working relationship with its legislative delegation, talking with its state leaders on a regular basis.
East Tennessee’s biggest city also lost on Insure Tennessee, which was supported by chambers of commerce, the Tennessee Hospital Association and numerous other organizations statewide.
“Obviously, they’re independent people in the sense they’re always going to pursue what their interests are, whether they overlap with ours or not,” Lyons says of state lawmakers.
As “creatures of the state,” cities don’t have nearly the legal power to override legislative decisions, Lyons notes. But Knoxville still holds to the philosophy of local control being better.
“It’s certainly fair to say that we’re not going to be 100 percent successful,” he says.
“Just nod if you can hear me”
Conversations between legislators and local groups can be like the Pink Floyd song “Comfortably Numb,” which reflects on a person’s inability to connect with reality. “Hello? Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?”
Anyone who’s been to a meeting between state legislators and teachers, business leaders or elected officials knows the disconnection. People ask questions and receive political answers. Teachers raise concerns and get lip service. County commissioners seek help and none arises.
Like an old song, it goes in one ear and out the other.
Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland is similar to most elected municipal leaders. He meets with delegation members, makes his arguments and feels lawmakers are “pretty good” in listening.
But he’s frustrated with contradictions he sees coming from Capitol Hill.
“The concerning part, I think, is that the Legislature really says they don’t like Washington telling them what to do,” McFarland says.
“And I think the thing the Legislature has to be careful with is doing the same thing to municipalities that they say Washington is doing to the states.”
From guns in parks to annexation and education, the General Assembly is “dictating and mandating” to municipalities, and McFarland says that is crossing a line.
Even more pointedly, he says lawmakers from rural East and West Tennessee are making decisions with a negative impact on larger cities, such as Murfreesboro.
“That just doesn’t make sense to me,” McFarland adds.
Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson is a little more diplomatic. Like others, he says his legislative delegation is responsive, working in the community and even calling local leaders to find out the impact of various bills.
“Now do they always vote the way that I want? No. But that’s OK. They’re seeking my input and they accept my input,” Anderson says.
“Sometimes they may see it on a larger (scale), but a vast majority of the time … they represent this county and their district and the people way up into the 90s. Do we always agree and see eye to eye, the answer’s no.”
Typically, the Legislature works with an eye toward local governments, he says. But occasionally it fouls up.
“I’m always going to be on their backs when they pass laws in Nashville that have a financial impact on us here in this county without sending money down,” Anderson says.
“Sometimes they strip it out in Nashville, Tennessee, and the people left holding the accountability would be down here,” Anderson says.
Neighboring Rutherford County, feeling the financial effects of changes in education testing requirements, is set to spend $2 million on computer software in fiscal 2016 to keep up with legislative action.
County Mayor Ernest Burgess contends the state acts without realizing the impact of unfunded mandates on local jurisdictions.
“If they thought this was an urgent need, they should have helped with that funding or, secondly, they could have given us a bit more time to phase this in over a couple of years or three more years,” Burgess says.
Keeping up with hundreds of bills is a challenge for local leaders and legislative delegations, and action takes place late in the budget review in Nashville without the knowledge of local leaders, Burgess acknowledges.
The mayor even takes some of the blame for not being in the loop.
“If something in particular really affects us and is meaningful to us, we probably need to help them be reminded about the impact of those things,” Burgess says. “So I think we’ve been a little bit negligent, quite honestly.”
The need to be “proactive” works both ways, he says, which means state lawmakers need to do more than go to meetings and act as if they’re listening.
Meanwhile, laying groundwork for the coming legislative session is crucial for Haslam this summer as he tries to muster help from city and county leaders to pass Insure Tennessee or a gas-tax increase to pay for local road projects.
Considering the governor gave in on guns in parks, he’ll need all the backing he can get in 2016 because this Legislature will probably continue to listen to its own beat.
Sam Stockard can be reached at [email protected].