The education committee of the Tennessee state senate has scheduled a hearing on a controversial bill introduced by a local legislator who serves as second vice chair of that committee.
Senate Bill 1755, the creation of Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Bradley and Hamilton Counties) will be discussed on March 14, at 9:30 a.m., according to information on the state legislature’s website.
Should the bill pass, it would mean that if Signal Mountain chooses to create its own school system, Hamilton County school officials would be required to transfer ownership of all schools it owns inside the town to the new municipal system.
The proposed legislation has been watched closely by a variety of state and local officials, including Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger who noted that the county has a huge financial stake in this issue.
"The Signal Mountain school buildings and properties are Hamilton County General Government assets purchased with taxpayer dollars,” Mayor Coppinger said shortly after the bill was introduced on Jan.
24. “We currently owe 17.5 million dollars on the bonds that secure these buildings. Therefore, we are interested in the details of any legislation considered in this session or any future session.”
According to the language of Senate Bill 1755, the county school system would have to declare such schools – and all other property it owns in the town – surplus property.
“(I)f a municipality creates or reactivates a city school system . . . all real and personal property that is located within the boundaries of the municipality and is owned by the county school system shall be declared surplus property by the county school system, and transferred to the municipal school system,” Gardenhire’s bill dictates.
The bill passed on first and second consideration soon after it was introduced in January, and was then referredtched to the Senate Education Committee.
Similar legislation, House Bill 1757, was introduced in the House by Rep. Harry Brooks (R-Knoxville).
If passed, the new law would apply throughout Tennessee.
According to the legislature’s website, SB 1755 has drawn only one comment from the public since Gardenhire introduced it.
“If this bill truly came from the Signal Mountain, TN independent school district fiasco, Senator Gardenhire is doing a disservice to all citizens of the State of Tennessee,” Thomas Brasel commented.
Sen. Gardenhire’s decision to initiate and move a bill through Tennessee State Government in support of a measure that has no chance of “passing a Town of Signal Mountain referendum will have lasting implications across the state of Tennessee,” he noted.
“If Senator Gardenhire actually understood what is going on in unincorporated Hamilton County, the Town of Signal Mountain and the Town of Walden, he would understand the disenfranchisement implications,” Mr. Brasel concluded, “and the fact that if this bill actually passes and becomes law, it will be challenged in the state supreme court.”