In a high-altitude overview of Tennessee approaching the Nov. 5 election, state Senator Bo Watson told the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club the state continues to be one of the most conservative in the nation, and that positions of power on legislative committees will dictate the issues of the day for Hamilton County and East Tennessee.
Education is the state’s top expense, and the General Assembly is beginning to classify education as a form of workforce development.
“Education and work do not have to be separated from each other,” said Senator Watson, who is chair of the Finance, Ways and Means Committee. “They have to go together in the modern world.”
As Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp pushes for reform of vocational high school, the state has contributed $2 million toward his plan to resurrect a career and technical school downtown inspired by Kirkman Technical High School, which closed in 1991.
Senator Watson said modern county governments are involved in economic and community development, but they weren’t even 20 years ago.
Senator Watson said the state has made significant contributions to local higher ed this year, too, listing $60 million for a college of business expansion at UTC, $8.7 million for the renovation of Fletcher Hall, funding for a new health sciences building, plus $10.4 million in Tennessee College of Applied Technology upgrades at Chattanooga State.
Higher education brings people to Chattanooga to live and work, Senator Watson said.
A member of the audience asked if Tennessee favors forgiveness of student loans for those who do not work but collect degrees.
“We would not support that,” Senator Watson said, emphasizing that education and employment will sync up more and more.
As the Tennessee population grows, the state continues to be one of the most culturally and fiscally conservative in the country, he said. Tennessee has the lowest debt per capita and the lowest taxes per capita, exempting Alaska, in the nation, he said. Economic and employment opportunities and lifestyle are also draws, he said.
The new Republican-led school board in Hamilton County lines up with the Republican-led statehouse, he said. While Tennessee’s 10 urban counties lean liberal, the remaining 85 counties lean conservative, he said.
Demand on infrastructure and services, caused by growth, “is stressing us,” he said. But the tax base will catch up with the community’s expectations, he said.
Tennessee has made strategic tax cuts -- $2 billion in two years – to generate economic growth, he said. Changes to the franchise and excise tax have made $396 million of that recurring, he said.
August revenues were $1.5 billion, he said, which is $1.3 million more than estimates and $36.3 million more than 2023 year-to-date.
August also posted a $6.3-million loss due to misalignment with the franchise and excise tax changes and the federal fiscal year, which runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
Senator Watson said state legislative power was concentrated in West Tennessee until 2006 and 2010 elections when it pivoted to East Tennessee. Now the region is overcoming past neglect but also is due more attention from the legislature because East Tennessee’s population has surpassed West Tennessee’s.
Senator Watson spoke to a great flaw in modern government: to look ahead for short-term solutions without building a foundation for future generations.
He said whole economies attach themselves to new programs, and that makes it hard to update them. He used vehicle emissions testing, which expired in 2022, as an example.
“It is difficult to look back and correct,” he said.
He bragged that Tennessee’s state retirement program is 92 percent fully funded, compared with Kentucky’s 15 percent.
“We have the best state-funded retirement program” in the nation, he said.
The state pays down its debt so that it has greater capacity to take on more debt if needed, and it uses today’s money to pay expenses of the future.
“That, my friends, is the essence of fiscal conservatism,” Senator Watson said. “That’s what our citizens are demanding of us.”
The Republican Party’s most important role, he said, is to limit government and limit spending.
Libertarians and conservatives, he said, “have to come together around the Republican Party.”