Tag Archives: Tennessee State Legislature

State Representative Ryan Williams said he plans to revive a bill during this legislative session that would allow school personnel to carry concealed firearms on school grounds. Williams said he first started work on the bill several years ago. Williams said the bill has already passed three committees with a super majority. “Those places where there technically considered gun-free zones ... Read More »

A new semester opened on the Tech Campus Thursday and President Phil Oldham preparing his syllabus for the Tennessee Legislature. Governor Bill Lee expected to release his budget plan for the 24-25 fiscal year in February. Oldham said sales tax revenues have been running a bit below estimates so far this fiscal year. “I sort of anticipate this year to ... Read More »

State Senator Paul Bailey is proposing legislation that would provide additional support to Tennessee judicial districts. Bailey said this would create 12 additional assistant district attorney general positions, also creating more secretarial and victim-witness coordinator positions. Bailey said an overwhelming amount of cases has been a chronic problem for judicial districts. “There’s a big case load in the Upper Cumberland, ... Read More »

A Tennessee Tech group of student athletes sent a letter to 26 state senators Monday asking to meet them and discuss national anthem protests. The group CODE, the Center of Diversity Education, called on senators to answer for last week’s letter asking university leaders statewide to stop the protests. In the group’s letter, CODE said “true unity can only be ... Read More »

The Upper Cumberland is getting some attention from the state in this year’s proposed budget. State Senator Paul Bailey said that there is private investment from Charter Communications into rural broadband expansion. Bailey said that goes along with Governor Lee’s proposed $200 million. “There’s going to be $5 million invested in the Upper Cumberland area,” Bailey said. “Specifically to the ... Read More »

State Representative Ryan Williams said he wants to move forward a bill involving Cookeville Regional retirement portfolios this legislative session. The bill involves employee retirement portfolios that did not transfer from Cookeville over to CRMC. Williams said this is for employees who moved from Cookeville over to the hospital. “What this would do, it would allow the transfer of those ... Read More »

Tennessee’s legislators will begin their legislative session on Tuesday, and it will not be a typical opening week for them. Getting organized is the normal procedure for week one, but State Representative Ryan Williams said they will spend the end of this week deciding on Tennessee’s Medicaid Block Grant waiver. Williams said they will come back next week for the ... Read More »

Upper Cumberland School Directors met with Tennessee Legislators Thursday to speak about their concerns about school funding. Jackson County School Director Kristy Brown said she got a chance to talk about issues important to her schools with Representative John Mark Windle and Senator Paul Bailey. Brown said trying to get teachers a raise next fiscal year ranked high on the ... Read More »