Posts

VIDEO: Lee Says Byrd Will Be Gone “Soon” (But Didn’t Actually Mean It)

/in , , , /by

Here’s Governor Lee yesterday telling Anna Grabowski Rep. David Byrd will be gone “soon”.

He has since said he didn’t mean soon, he meant he asked him not to run again – meaning he believes Byrd to be guilty of the child sex abuse he’s accused of, yet is willing to let him serve out his term anyway. Wonderful!

Meanwhile Byrd told a reporter Lee did NOT ask him not to run again… before then trying to walk that back.

So. Much. Moonwalking.

So. Little. Leadership.

INTERVIEW: Andy Spears of the TN Ed Report on Voucher Vultures

/in , , , /by

Here’s a new Facebook Live interview from this morning with Andy Spears of the TN Education report.

Andy talks about the #VoucherVultures descending on Nashville thanks to Governor Bill Lee’s new legislation, and what we can do to push back against Lee’s all-out assault on public schools.

Voucher Vultures Swoop Down On Nashville

/in , , /by

This post was first seen on the Tennessee Education Report. Follow @TNEdReport for more information on Education.

Roughly one month after Governor Bill Lee signed his Education Savings Account voucher scheme into law, a North Carolina-based private school announced it is expanding operations to Nashville.

Perhaps not surprisingly, tuition at the school is similar to the amount available to families in Nashville and Memphis under the ESA program.

The school, Thales Academy, is operated by the CEO of a commercial kitchen ventilation company. Bob Luddy is also a top GOP donor in North Carolina.

Here’s Luddy on how great his schools are:

“We get results. If you look consistently over a period of time, kindergarten students come in, they can barely walk in the door, they can barely sit down, and then you see them progress as they learn sounds, and they learn to decode. By the time they progress into the 3rd or 4th grade they’re doing very sophisticated work, which is going to prepare them to be excellent students in the long term,” Luddy says in a video on the Thales Academy website.

And here’s more on accreditation straight from the school’s website:

The accreditation process does not align with Thales Academy’s mission and would prevent Thales from maintaining our standard of the highest quality education.

Thales and Luddy are not new to Tennessee. In fact, in 2015, voucher advocate Lee Barfield paid for a private plane to take former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and then-House Speaker Beth Harwell to North Carolina to visit the Thales schools.

Like Bill Lee, Barfield is a long-time supporter of Betsy DeVos’s American Federation for Children and even served on the group’s Board of Directors.

Those in the GOP cozying up to Luddy should beware, though, he’s known for expressing his disappointment where it hurts politicians the most: Campaign contributions.

Here’s how he treated the House GOP in North Carolina:

A major conservative donor’s decision this week to divert a planned $25,000 contribution away from state House Republicans highlights an increasingly bitter divide within the party over tax policy and government spending.

Raleigh businessman Bob Luddy, who chairs the board of the conservative Civitas Institute think tank and is an influential financial supporter of conservative candidates, emailed a sharp critique of the House budget to House Republicans, who are in the majority.

Luddy complained that the budget advancing to a major vote on Thursday does not include new tax cuts and extends tax breaks for specific industries. He called the spending plan too “liberal” and said he’s decided to withold his planned, annual donation to the House Republicans’ campaign committee.

Luddy instead directed his money to Americans for Prosperity and then issued this sharp rebuke to those who had taken his money in the past but were not doing his bidding:

But Luddy says the state shouldn’t prop up the solar industry. “These guys couldn’t exist without government subsidies, and those subsidies have to come from every working taxpayer who are capable of creating way more jobs than the solar industry could ever create,” he said.

Here’s a guy who plans on using public money to fund his private school scheme and he’s decrying the use of public funds to support an industry he simply doesn’t like. Perhaps if public money shouldn’t be used to “prop up the solar industry” it also shouldn’t be used to prop up Luddy’s Thales Academy.

Those who warned that passage of vouchers would lead to “pop-up” private schools have already been proven right. Thales Academy and Bob Luddy were invited into Tennessee by Bill Lee and friends and are now perched like hungry vultures ready to suck funds from Nashville’s public schools.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

Former Rep. Barry Doss Defends Byrd, Says “A Lot” of People Molest People

/in , , , /by

Yesterday the Tennessean ran a jaw-dropping article in which former Rep. Barry Doss (R-Lawrenceburg) was quoted as saying Rep. David Byrd – who has apologized on tape to 1 of 3 women who say he sexually abused them when he was their high school basketball coach – has admitted he’s “ashamed of his past” but that “God has forgiven him”.

Doss also recently approached Kristina Richardson of Enough Is Enough – Tennessee and defended Byrd by saying that “There’s a lot more people that have molested people than you’re letting on.”

The “everyone does” it defense is an interesting one to use when it comes to child sex abuse.

He even seemed to implicate Governor Lee as someone with skeletons in his closet. The whole thing has to be seen to be believed. WATCH THE VIDEO:

The other man in the video is Kevin Baigert, who runs the Roving Patriots PAC with his wife Laura, and who was involved with helping to launch the Tennessee Star, a right-wing propaganda outlet (whose CEO owes his ex-wife hundreds of thousands in child support).

In the video Baigert tells Kristina that if she wants to go after Byrd she needs to go after Rep. Rick Staples also, as well as Martin Luther King Jr., even though neither have admitted on tape to child sex abuse with teenage girls.

Richardson also makes the astute point that as a Hardin County resident David Byrd is her representative, and Martin Luther King Jr. is not. She then tells the two men she is not being paid, and says she is one of 6 women of Enough Is Enough who are speaking up about the Byrd issue on behalf of the survivors.

Kristina handled herself well. Truly fascinating to watch Doss and Baigert essentially mount the “Everyone does it” defense on behalf of Byrd, whose behavior Doss repeatedly insists he is not “condoning”.

It’s important to note that what Doss does NOT say is “Byrd didn’t do it.”

At the same event we saw Senator Joey Hensley call Byrd a “good person” and a changed man, which tells us that Republicans have abandoned the “Byrd didn’t do it” defense – clearly realizing nobody was buying that – and have now moved on to saying he did it but he’s a new man, a good Christian and that since God has forgiven him we all should too.

Ironically, Governor Lee JUST THIS WEEK signed a bill that removed statute of limitations for child sex abuse that passed the house and senate easily.

So to sum up the Republican position: Child sex abusers should be punished regardless of how much time has passed… unless you’re David Byrd.

The hypocrisy runs deep.

We should note that Governor Lee has left the door open to expelling Byrd in the upcoming August 23rd special session to replace Glen Casada as speaker. Between now and then, everyone in Tennessee should be showing up at town halls and hollering at every elected official to ask ON TAPE if they agree Byrd Must Go.

Salute to Kristina for this video. Please send all other videos of reps being asked our way: [email protected]

Bill Lee’s Medical Poverty Tour

/in , , /by

This post was first seen on the TN Citizen Action Blog. Follow @TNCitizenAction for more.

On Friday, Governor Bill Lee toured rural counties in southern middle Tennessee touting what he called his legislative accomplishments.

It’s worth noting that the counties he toured are home to residents with crushing medical debt, this is why medical debt relief is highly important and needs addressing by those in power. Additionally, many citizens in these counties face a lack of access to health insurance. This is despite there being insurance quote comparison sites like Insurance Quotes (https://www.insurancequotes.com/health) which help people to find affordable health insurance. While Lee failed to apologize for his health policy failures, the citizens of this area and all of Tennessee should be holding Lee accountable. People can follow steps from sites like Extras Finance and be very careful with their money and still end up having issues with medical debt, after all.

His steadfast refusal to expand Medicaid – at no cost to Tennessee taxpayers – is creating a crisis in a state that already leads the nation in both rural hospital closures and medical debt.

Here’s more (data from The Sycamore Institute) on the state of healthcare in each of the counties Lee visited:

Giles County

28% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report

Between 11% and 14% of Giles County residents do not have health insurance

Lawrence County

30% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report

14-17% of Lawrence County residents do not have health insurance

Lincoln County

26% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report

8-11% of Lincoln County residents do not have health insurance

Bedford County

33% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report

14-17% of Bedford County residents do not have health insurance

Percent-of-Tennesseans-without-Health-Insurance-2012-2016-1

According to Andy Spears, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action:

“Bill Lee’s stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid is an absolute policy failure. The current state of healthcare in these counties and all across our state is unacceptable. We lead the nation in rural hospital closures. We lead the nation in medical debt. Instead of announcing a plan to move forward and improve the lives of the residents of these counties, Lee is busy selling the snake oil of his Administration’s ‘success’. It’s disappointing and shameful. Tennesseans in Giles, Lawrence, Lincoln, and Bedford counties and all over our state deserve straight talk and real solutions.”

Bill Lee Fail

For more on our work fighting for healthcare, follow @TNCitizenAction

Vouchers Just the Beginning: Gov. Lee Open to “Alternative” Ways to Dismantle Public Schools

/in , , , /by

This week Governor Lee visited Lawrenceburg alongside Rep. Clay Doggett and Rep. Joey Hensley as part of a mini-tour through Lawrence and a few other rural counties, and the subject of his Education Savings Accounts aka School Vouchers plan was brought up, and Lee again made it plain as day he is no friend to public schools, and that ESA’s are not a way to fix public schools, they’re a way to dismantle them.

WATCH:

As a reminder, ESA’s are vouchers that will allow kids to take public money to private schools, draining public schools of resources while steering money to what are in many cases religious for-profit Christian schools not subject to the same levels of accountability as Tennessee’s public schools.

The ESA program has been a priority of Governor Lee, but also of Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, who has said on tape that her main agenda is to “Advance God’s Kingdom” through initiatives like vouchers.

ESA’s passed the house 50-48 after some serious arm-twisting by Glen Casada. Jason Zachary was the rep who flipped at the last minute, while insisting he was not promised anything for his vote. The FBI is allegedly now looking into what happened.

At this town hall, a woman stood up and asked Governor Lee about tax credits for those who don’t want their kids going to public schools. She expressed skepticism about the curriculum, saying that’s why she chose to remove her kids from public schools and now wants to not have to pay for them:

“Because some of us are paying taxes for services we’re not even using.”

Instead of expressing his support for public schools and pointing out how devastating it would be to our society if public schools were suddenly gutted by laws that required only those who use them to pay for them – meaning single people, people with grown kids, etc. could opt out (imagine the same if people decided they didn’t need police, or roads – an a la carte pay-for-what-you-use tax system is simply not what we have here in America).

No, Governor Lee went a different route. He expressed sympathy for the woman’s perspective, implied that he shares her vision for the future and believes ESA’s are the best way of getting there:

“If the people of Tennessee see good outcomes and results from that, then what we’ll start seeing is a greater desire and request for school choice, and we’ll look to alternative ways to do it.”

Lee tells her that because there’s no income tax in Tennessee, Education Savings Accounts are the best way to get where she’s trying to go – and that once people see that steering public money to private schools is a good thing, soon it won’t just be happening in Nashville and Memphis – the only two places  currently targeted with the ESA’s (which is why Shelby and Davidson are taking legal action) – over the cries of the reps from those districts.

Lee wants vouchers to eventually be everywhere. And then he’s open to other “alternative” ways to dismantle public schools and get their hands on those public dollars.

Lee very clearly did not dismiss the woman’s vision for a future in which nobody who doesn’t want to support public schools has to, where people can instead take all those public tax dollars and steer them to private schools under the guise of “school choice” – “Advancing God’s Kingdom” as Betsy Devos puts it.

This is only the beginning.

In the same meeting, Clay Doggett also reminded us again that the only reason he and 49 other reps voted for the vouchers was because they were promised vouchers wouldn’t come anywhere near their districts.

Senator Jack Johnson told Williamson County the same, and Rep. Crawford told The Holler that no he wouldn’t like it if vouchers were imposed on his district against his will, as is being done to Shelby and Davidson.

For more on vouchers, read The TN Ed Report’s recent piece on it.

Thank you Kristina for going there and showing up. We’d like to encourage everyone to show up at all town halls across the state and ask tough questions, and Holler at us with your videos.

 

Message of Support From Germany To Chattanooga VW Workers

/in , , , /by

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga will soon be deciding whether or not to unionize. Governor Lee recently made a trip over there to encourage them not to and was loudly booed for his efforts.

Here’s a good article about the situation and the tactics employed by management by Chris Brooks, who covers union issues:

Managers have handed out flyers tying the UAW to plant closures. In a captive-audience meeting, CEO Frank Fischer implied that the UAW was to blame for the 1988 closure of a Volkswagen plant in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.

This week Jorg Hoffman, chair of IG Metall and Deputy chair of the Volkswagen Supervisory Board, sent a message of support to the Volkswagen workers encouraging them to unionize and reprimanding VW Chattanooga’s management for allowing anti-union lawyers to continue to try to influence the process.

“Chattanooga’s management has the clear directive from headquarters in Germany to stay neutral in the election,” Hoffman says. “I am really disappointed management has not been neutral. They have been neutral verbally, but their actions have been the opposite.”

Hoffman goes on to say that anti-union lawyers were ordered away from the plant, but that they continue to advise management off-site. Many employees of the site are soon to be looking at completing an FLSA bonus overtime calculation to find out if they’re receiving less than they should during overtime hours, this would be one great reason why they need to unionize and spread their message of the potentially unlawful acts. Be it payment for extra work, or working in hazardous conditions (which most factory work tends to be), there should be proper compensation provided to the employees. For more information, browse this site and learn more about the laws entailing it.

Coming back to our topic of discussion, companies that are actually supportive towards their employees. and support their employees show up on documentation and by word of mouth, knowing which companies have the best performance reviews will show those why they do, and what skills and management styles need to be implemented to achieve this. Companies and organizations should work hard to foster a supportive and engaging environment for their employees. Having employees that fully intend on staying with the company and who would recommend its services to peers and colleagues are all consequences of high employee engagement. The overall success of the company depends on having employees committed to its overall goals and values and who are motivated to contribute to helping it go from strength to strength.

“We denounce the use of fear in this campaign by Chattanooga management,” he says, adding that “voting yes will not endanger your plant or your jobs” and that all over the world unions and management are working trustfully together.”

Hoffman makes a good point. Here in America, unions have been under attack for decades by management and the politicians they control. But in other countries, like Germany, for instance, workers have seats on the boards of companies, and therefore have a say in the direction of the company’s.

The relationship is therefore far less adversarial, as workers feel ownership, participate in the good times as well, and make concessions during the bad.

Many Germans attribute this arrangement to Germany’s economic success. Imagine that – unions being empowered and appreciated rather than attacked and dismantled.

The numbers don’t lie – unions and the middle class go hand in hand. The union authorization election runs Wednesday through Friday this week; 1,700 workers are eligible to vote.

From Labor Notes:

“I’m only 33 and I can’t see myself working here for another 10 years,” said Ashley Murray. “I would be disabled by then. We need a union because they are a multibillion-dollar company and they treat us like shit.”

Murray is a production employee at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of 18 hourly employees there I interviewed for this story. Comments like hers were almost universal.

Volkswagen was wooed to Chattanooga in 2008 with a $554 million subsidy package from the state and local governments… It was the largest taxpayer handout ever given to a foreign-owned automaker up to that moment, and remains the largest subsidy deal in Tennessee history. The deal came free of any job or investment requirements.

More from Labor Notes on the conditions at VW:

The current starting wage for a production worker at the factory is $15.50 an hour and pay tops out at $23 an hour, or around $48,000 per year without overtime.

Volkswagen provides the lowest pay and benefits of any automaker in the U.S., according to a 2015 report by the Center for Automotive Research.

If you agree Governor Lee and Chattanooga management should keep their hands off the election – and others in the future – Holler at him HERE.

PROMINENT REPUBLICANS SAY CASADA SHOULD STEP DOWN

/in , , /by

The breaking news has been spewing forth like a powerful stream of urine on a legislator who opposes Speaker Casada’s seat lately (yes, that happened)…

…so we wanted to bring you up to speed on who has – and has not – had the courage to say Speaker Casada should resign. This issue has been all over Twitter so if you haven’t signed up for the platform yet then this might be a good time to do so! However, you may require the services of a website like useviral.com if you want a decent following. Improving your social media traction has proved helpful in multiple cases and especially in ones where you have to speak up for a particular cause! Understandably, this is where tools such as Circleboom can come in handy to manage your Twitter account effectively!

There are several tools similar to this that you may want to look into before making a final decision. One that is not often recommended is Owlead, fortunately there are plenty of Owlead alternatives. Whichever you pick, make sure to follow us on Twitter and join in on the conversation on Casada’s transgressions.

The list of transgressions that have marred Casada’s tenure as Speaker is long, and includes, lying, spying, racism, sexism, fraud, bribery, drugs, house arrest, and protecting child sex abusers to name a few (not to mention peeing on people’s chairs).

Here’s who has come forward to speak up… most notably, GOVERNOR LEE has now said if Casada worked for him he would ask him to resign.

Lt. Governor Randy McNally said “if I was in that deep of water I’d pack up my bags and go home.”

Rep. Jeremy Faison says Casada is “complicit with racism” and should step down as speaker and give Williamson County a chance to send him home altogether… and radio host Phil Valentine says he can’t believe he hasn’t resigned yet, and is angry Casada blatantly lied on his show:

The Executive Director of the Tennessee Firearms Association says Casada “willfully lied” and “should step down”:


Knox County’s Republican Mayor says it’s time for him to go:

House Majority Whip Rick Tillis (who may have been running an anonymous twitter account to shed light on the goings-on inside the legislature, and who may have had his office chair pissed on as a result) spoke out…


…Rep. Sam Whitson said Casada should step down also…


…as did Rep. Hawk… Senator Marsha Blackburn called it “disgusting”… Rep. Patsy Hazelwood seemed to open the door to change… as did Senator Massey…


and Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Bill Dunn.

And of course, many Democrats have said it’s time for him to go as well (still no word from Rep. John Deberry though).

Those who have come out in support of Casada despite everything that has happened include: Rep. Andy Holt, Rep. Susan Lynn, Rep. Ron Travis, Rep. Mike Sparks, Rep. Micah Van Huss, Rep. Matthew Hill, Rep. Bud Hulsey, and the Williamson County Republican Party.

Do you know of anyone we’ve left out? Holler at us HERE: [email protected]

In the meantime, #ResignCasada.

VIDEO: Governor Lee’s School Vouchers Pass The Senate (Highlights)

/in , , , /by

After squeaking through the house, Governor Lee’s public school-harming legislation that no legislators want near their own district passed the senate 20-13.

Watch the video, and holler at your legislators. The House & Senate versions still need to be reconciled, so keep calling, and show up at the capitol Monday!

Here’s more on vouchers, and what happened in the house this week – when Rep. Zachary sold public schools out at the last minute.

Reps Akbari, Robinson, Yarbro, and Dickerson all did their best to speak out, but to no avail.

Reps Hawk & Ramsey Say Casada Tried to Buy Voucher Votes, Casada Denies It – But Zachary Is Living Proof

/in , , /by

As you’ve probably heard by now, Governor Lee’s school vouchers plan barely passed the house this week after some last-minute shenanigans by Speaker Casada, who held the vote open for 40 minutes so he could twist the arm of Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville).

Zachary eventually flipped from a “No” to a “Yes”, giving Casada and Governor Lee the 50-48 win they needed.

After the vote, Zachary took to the floor with Casada in tow to explain to the press that his reasons for flipping were that Knox County wouldn’t be affected and would be held “fiscally harmless” – meaning this plan that will supposedly be so great for Nashville & Memphis is something he and many others want nowhere near their own counties.

When asked if Casada had promised him anything else in return for his vote, Zachary first indicated that he did, saying something about teacher raises – which some teachers have taken great exception to –   before then reversing that and saying he didn’t have anything he needed money for.

Hard to keep up with all these reversals.

That Zachary got nothing in return was hard to believe considering the reports of various rural legislators being promised grants and appropriations by Governor Lee in exchange for their support.

Now the Tennessean has just posted an article listing those giveaways – and wouldn’t you know it? Rep. Zachary has the highest number on the list next to his name. His $1 million is peanuts compared to the harm it will do to public schools in the areas where vouchers are affected, but it’s hard to believe his topping the list is a coincidence.

It’s also hard to believe Zachary considering the other quotes in the article from Republican Representatives David Hawk (Greenville) and Bob Ramsey (Maryville), who say Casada was sending his $200,000 chief of staff Cade Cothren to ask them what they wanted in exchange for their votes during the vouchers debate.

From the Tennessean:

“Two Republican lawmakers who voted against Gov. Bill Lee’s controversial school voucher bill said they were offered incentives to change their minds and vote in favor of the legislation… Several House lawmakers have told the USA TODAY Network – Tennessee in recent weeks there were efforts by those in the speaker’s and governor’s office to sway them to vote yes on the bill by offering to fund projects in their districts.

Such lobbying continued Tuesday.

Rep. David Hawk, R-Greeneville, who unsuccessfully challenged Glen Casada in the race for speaker, said Wednesday he was approached by Cade Cothren, Casada’s chief of staff on the House floor.

“He came to me and said that he and the speaker needed my vote on vouchers and asked me what I wanted in return,” said Hawk, who characterized the conversation as very heated. “I told him that he and the speaker had nothing that I wanted.”

And then on Ramsey:

Rep. Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville, said he had been approached and offered incentives before and during the voucher vote in an attempt to persuade him to flip.

“There was efforts that had repeated visits from advocates hired apparently by the administration, and lobbyists, over the last few weeks,” Ramsey said Wednesday. “I let the administration know early on that I couldn’t support the vouchers.”

Ramsey said he received no threats of funding being cut in his district in Blount County, but that he was offered unspecified incentives.

“The only insinuation was that there would be the possibility of revenue expenditures for projects in my district at some point that would be facilitated by my support of vouchers,” Ramsey said.

Again at that time, Ramsey said, members of the Republican leadership hinted that additional funding would be made available to him for district projects if he switched his vote. Ramsey said no specific dollar amount was mentioned. He still declined to change his vote.

Hawk and Ramsey voted against the bill.

Good for them for sticking to their guns.

It’s one thing to be a vouchers truther, as Rep. Dunn, who is carrying the bill, appears to be. But If you believe steering public funds to private schools will hurt public schools, yet you’re willing to sell out our kids for your own political interests, something is very wrong there.

Casada went on to deny the efforts to bribe representatives for their votes, likely because he knows how it looks:

Casada, R-Franklin, said he met with several members and “asked them to do the right thing” on the education bill. But the speaker denied offering anything to the members.

“If one or two (members) misunderstood what I was saying — that happens too — I was asking them to step up and be leaders and do what’s good for the children of Tennessee,” he said.

“Misunderstood”. Riiight.

Unfortunately for Casada, he’s already on record as having lied about multiple important issues, including something as easily disprovable as meeting with the victims of Rep. David Byrd, who Casada promoted to chair of an education subcommittee even after he apologized on tape to 1 of 3 women who accuse him of molesting them as teenagers.

Casada had not met with them, and still hasn’t. We’re going to go ahead and believe Ramsey and Hawk on this one.

The Tennessean goes on to point to the appropriations that were given to legislators who voted for the vouchers:

24 of the 32 House lawmakers to have their appropriation requests fulfilled voted for the voucher bill. Those who voted for the ESA bill had $7.3 million in appropriations included in the House budget.

Casada denied any correlation between House members who voted for the ESA bill and having their budget requests funded.

The funded appropriation requests come after the governor released a recently amended state budget that provided 16 community grants totaling $2.1 million to many lawmakers who ended up voting for the ESA bill.

“Casada denied any correlation”. Okay.

And here’s Zachary, ever the good soldier, denying it too, while the Tennessean reminds us his district receives the highest number on the list:

Among the funded appropriation requests in the House budget was one from Zachary for $1 million to provide grants to four accredited zoos in the state and the Tennessee Aquarium. On Tuesday, Zachary cast the deciding vote to ensure the passage of the governor’s education savings account bill.

Zachary denied receiving anything in return for changing his vote — which initially was a no — and said he received adequate assurances that Knox County would be removed from the legislation in the coming days.

It appears Casada’s habit of playing fast and loose with the truth is contagious.

The Tennessean goes on to point out that there are some who voted against the bill who also got money, but the numbers on the other side speak for themselves (see below).

The vouchers fight is far from over, which is probably why Lee & Casada called upon President Trump for a congratulatory tweet yesterday.

The senate still needs to vote on their version (TODAY), and then there will be another vote in the house to reconcile the two bills. Holler at your reps to let them know you’re watching, especially Zachary, Hawk, Ramsey, & Casada.

The following list includes House members who voted for the ESA bill and had their appropriation amendments funded (includes funding totals):

  • House Speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin: $40,000
  • House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, $3.5 million 
  • House finance committee chair Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet: $619,000 
  • Rep. Clark Boyd, R-Lebanon: $200,000
  • Rep. John DeBerry, D-Memphis: $10,000
  • Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville: $2,000
  • Rep. Timothy Hill, R-Blountville: $50,000
  • Rep. Andy Holt, R-Dredsen: $100,000
  • Rep. Bud Hulsey, R-Kingsport: $467,000
  • Rep. Sabi Kumar, R-Springfield: $25,000
  • Rep. Tom Leatherwood, R-Arlington: $30,000
  • Rep. Mary Littleton, R-Dickson: $10,000
  • Rep. Pat Marsh, R-Shelbyville – $10,500
  • Rep. Jerome Moon, R-Maryville: $37,000
  • Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge: $100,000
  • Rep. Jay Reedy, R-Erin: $15,000
  • Rep. Tim Rudd, R-Murfreesboro: $50,000
  • Rep. Bill Sanderson, R-Kenton: $215,000
  • Rep. Paul Sherrell, R-Sparta: $30,000
  • Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna: $10,000
  • Rep. Rick Tillis, R-Lewisburg: $28,000
  • Rep. Chris Todd, R-Jackson: $20,000
  • Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis: $675,000
  • Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville: $1 million
  • we’re also told Rep. Clay Doggett, R-Lawrenceburg got Half a million for theater renovations)