State Senator Mark Norris and House Representative Craig Fitzhugh told a crowd of government and business leaders in Dyersburg Friday they could not believe how smoothly the debate over the 2003-04 budget went during the legislative session that ended last month.
At the same time, both men were deeply troubled about many of the complex issues that would face Tennesseans next year.
"The atmosphere on the hill was completely different from last year," Norris said, remembering the vicious, partisan battle over a proposed income tax that nearly paralyzed state government last year.
Fitzhugh said even the state lottery, which could have been a contentious issue for the legislature, was resolved with minimal squabbling and the first games should be offered in January 2004.
Both men held a joint public-information session in the First Citizens Annex at 8 a.m. Friday.
Norris and Fitzhugh agreed the next session on the hill would likely be a less amicable one if the national and state economy didn't turn around - and soon. The course of the debate would also be impacted by the realities that 2004 was an election year.
Fitzhugh said the two biggest issues ahead, as he saw them, were TennCare reform and controlling state budget costs in a time of economic hardship.
He contended the legislature was content to wait and see how Gov. Phil Bredesen's four-point plan to manage TennCare costs would play itself out. In the first phase of the governor's reform plan, a $174 million cap that had been established in Washington was removed with the help of Senate majority leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. It was a step many on the hill felt would not be accomplished. Bredesen has next proposed changing the way prescription drugs are handled, which would save about $150 million, renegotiating legal settlements made in past years, and, finally, adjusting TennCare operations in rural areas to make them more efficient.
"The governor has promised that by January 15 he would tell us if TennCare is viable or shut it down," Norris said.
Norris also believed TennCare woes were merely a reflection of a greater healthcare crisis in the state and the nation as a whole. He said he has sponsored 13 different health-related bills including one calling for medical malpractice reform that would impose caps on damages for non-economic losses and attorney's fees. He also wants to modernize workers' compensation statutes to reduce the heavy burdens on West Tennessee businesses.
Responding to questions from the audience, both state legislators agreed that higher education had "taken it on the chin" in this budget session. Neither, however, were willing to commit to supporting sizable infusions of cash for the system in the next budget year. Instead, they wanted to first see how lottery-funded scholarships impacted higher education and hoped to address administrative problems such as the structure of the Basic Education Formula and the dual system of post-secondary governance in the state - the Tennessee Board of Regents and the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees.
"I am concerned about the funding formula in the state," said Norris. "We need to begin looking at the number of graduates and not just the number of students enrolled in colleges."
One major piece of legislation that was passed in the final hours of the session was a bill to streamline the sales tax. The purpose was to allow Tennessee to join other states in a consortium that would go before the U.S. Congress and ask for the right to collect sales taxes on Internet sales.
"The hope was that if Tennessee was in the consortium early it would have a bigger voice," Fitzhugh said.
Norris was one of the few Senators who voted against the measure saying "if we had spent a third of the time on that as we did on the lottery we would have had a better bill." He was concerned the changes in the sales tax system made by the bill would adversely impact the state in future years.
