On Thursday afternoon, I sponsored and passed two important pieces of legislation. Each bill will greatly improve Tennessee’s education system. The bills were brought in response to a challenge from our governor and represent the first steps towards leading Tennessee away from 49th in this nation’s education rankings.

The first bill committed the state of Tennessee to paying 75 percent of the instructional costs of education as opposed to the current rate of 65 percent. By increasing state funds and reducing local government funds, your local government benefits tremendously. Home owners should expect and should demand lower property tax payments in the future because their local government will have a smaller obligation on its largest budget item.

To pay for this, I sponsored the second bill. The second bill was a tax on tobacco. It increased our cigarette tax from the fourth lowest in the nation to one that is still well below the national average. The tax that I passed was an increase of 42 cents per pack. It is only the third Tennessee cigarette tax increase in 40 years.

As I see it, we substituted tobacco taxes for property taxes. This is hard to explain to people. Connecting the tobacco tax to local property taxes is not something you can put in a “sound bite” or press release but it was something each senator knew.

The first bill passed with 32 of the 33 Senators voting for it. However, the second bill, the one that financed the 75 percent bill, the one that made all this possible, passed on a straight-line partisan vote. All Democrats voted yes, and all Republicans voted no.

What does this say about the Tennessee Senate? What does this say about Democrats and Republicans? I would say that it speaks volumes as to who can be trusted to lead our state. Please remember, for months Republicans said there were other ways to finance the education plan and the tobacco money was not needed, but in the end, Republicans did not fight the tax; they did not offer alternatives to the tax; they simply stood on the sidelines.

We Democrats asked our Republican colleagues to walk with us as we turn this state away from 49th. Sadly, they could not find the courage to go.

Tennessee deserves better. Tennessee deserves leadership that is willing to take risks, leadership that looks to the next generation and not the next election. Tennessee Democrats understand it is hard to lead, it is difficult to lead, but it is, to quote John Wilder, “good to lead.” Tennessee deserves Democratic leadership in both the Senate and House.

(Sen. Jim Kyle is Democratic Leader of the Tennessee Senate. He represents District 28 in Memphis.)

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I must admit to being weary of people using their titles and their education and their reputation with certain circles to inflate their confidence in themselves to see the good and the right in the way that our country should be led. Many people have been brainwashed into naturally looking up to those types of people and putting blind faith in them, all the while never questioning any of the notions and ideas that they espouse, but merely listening to their written or spoken words and giving them the rubber stamp of approval based solely on titles and such. Formal education will never lead one to think for themselves. Learning to think for ones self takes foresight that leads to wisdom. Often, wisdom comes with age, but sadly, more often than not, it never comes to many people.

Let’s take a realistic look at Mr. Kyle’s effort to tout his ability to see and to do the good and right thing.

1:

I have studied statistics, and the most prominent thing about them is how extremely misleading that they are. Anytime that someone uses statistics without a context, then you should question their motive, because something is hidden that they do not want you to know. A text without a context is a pretext. Just what determines Tennessee to be 49th in education as apposed to other states. If you want to use some sort of statistic or percentage to define us as such, let me point out that the difference among 50 states when determining the lead could be 1% or even less from first place to last place.

2:

If our local government is to benefit greatly, as Mr. Kyle states, how is that to be if the benefit from the state is going to be negated by lower property taxes. It seems to me that the local government will just come out even. I have anticipated a common response to this statement, in that many will say that the property tax decrease will save property and business owners money that they will put back in to the economy, thereby increasing the economy and tax revenue for local government. That is a theory that the upper middle class and upper class have espoused for years to support placing more of the tax burden on the middle class and the lower classes and less on themselves. It is a very improbable theory, and very self serving for those who espouse it.

3:

Mr. Kyle suffers from an inflated ego via his title and position by trying to convince us that the public is too dumb to understand a statement like, “as I see it, we substituted tobacco tax for property taxes. This is hard to explain to people.” If Mr. Kyle truly believes that the citizens of Tennessee are too dumb to understand that concept, then it is no wonder that he thinks that we need to improve education.

4:

This is where I am most critical of Mr. Kyle. It is a fact that cigarettes contain high amounts of nicotine, which is classified as a poison, and is one of the most addictive drugs known to man. It is also a fact that nicotine addiction causes a ten year premature death rate for those who are addicted to it to the tune of 500,000 people per year. That is a half of a million people a year in this country alone whose lives are cut ten years short by nicotine addiction, not to mention the years of suffering from lung and heart disease prior to death. If education is so important to Mr. Kyle, it certainly isn't reflected in his need to educate people to the harmful effects of tobacco use. Instead, Mr. Kyle has chosen to prey on an identifiable and vulnerable group of people and force them to bare the greater portion of the financial burden of educating our young people. Realize that if we were to educate people not to smoke, then Mr. Kyle's education payment method falls to pieces. We all benefit from the education process equally, therefore we should all bare the burden equally. I find it despicable that such a proposal is accepted by a civilized nation. Now, we not only choose to prey on the ignorant use of a vice such as gambling via the Tennessee State Lottery, but also those unfortunate enough to suffer from nicotine addiction.

5:

Now, for the part that will outrage more people than anything previously said. When I went to junior high school and high school right here in Chattanooga, and to apply wisdom in hindsight, 3/4 of all of the teachers that I had performed at such an unacceptably low standard that it should have been criminal for them to even pretend to be teachers of young people, or the molders of young minds. No amount of money will remedy that. When teachers understand and accept with their heart the challenge of teaching and molding the minds of young people, and when parents understand their own monumental role in doing the same, then we will have an acceptable standard of education. Money is not and should not be the primary driving force behind the education system.

In parting, I noticed that Mr. Kyle's opinion piece was two-fold, and I have to question what his primary motive in writing it truly is. It seems that his effort was to blow his own horn, while at the same time tearing down those who are just as legitimately a part of this nation as he is, just not of the same party. If he really thinks that he represents true leadership in passing this legislation, then he has yet to learn whet true leadership is.

A wise man once said that a nation divided against itself cannot stand, and in this time more than ever, we are seeing the evidence of that.

Bruce Cavin
bccavin@aol.com