Johnson to seek state House seat

Former state Rep. Gloria Johnson today announced that she plans to run for the 13th District state House seat she held for two years prior to Republican Eddie Smith defeating her in 2014.

In a news release issued today, Johnson, a Democrat, focused, in part, on some 280,000 Tennesseans who don't have health care and roughly 100,000 students who "woke up again as special interests try to cut funding form public education."

She said:

Our neighbors deserve a Representative who will wake up every single day, committed with dogged determination to stand up and fight for Tennessee's working families who deserve better. Our children deserve fully funded public education where all kids have an opportunity to succeed, Tennessee's women deserve equal pay for equal work, and our 280,000 uninsured neighbors should not lose everything they have worked hard for just because they get sick.

The state primary is set for early August.

As always, send your political stuff to the ol' Porch for publication consideration.

Haslam: Special session to consider 'Insure Tennessee' set for Feb. 2

Gov. Big Bill today officially called for a special session to begin at 4 p.m. (slow time) on Feb. 2 for the General Assembly to consider Haslam-O-Care.

Here's the release below:

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today issued a proclamation convening an “extraordinary session” of the 109th General Assembly to consider “Insure Tennessee,” a two year pilot program to provide health care coverage to Tennesseans who do not currently have access to health insurance or have limited options. The program is designed to reward healthy behaviors, promote personal responsibility and incentivize preventative care and healthy choices.

The proclamation calls for the special session to begin Monday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. CST for the legislature to consider a joint resolution authorizing the governor to implement Insure Tennessee. The governor is scheduled to address the General Assembly at 6 p.m. CST that evening.

“There are few challenges facing us today as great as those presented by our broken health care system,” Haslam said. “The Insure Tennessee plan is a conservative approach that introduces market principles to Medicaid, provides health care coverage to more Tennesseans at no additional cost to taxpayers, and leverages a payment reform initiative that is working to control health care costs and improve the quality of care. I believe this plan is a critical first step to fundamentally changing health care in Tennessee.”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

WAIVER AMENDMENT

In December the governor was joined by representatives from a coalition of business, health care and civic organizations when he announced his Insure Tennessee plan.

The plan does not create any new taxes nor adds any state cost to the budget. The hospital industry has committed that it will cover any additional cost to the state, and the program will automatically terminate in the event that either federal funding or support from the hospitals is modified in any way.

The plan would provide coverage to more than 200,000 uninsured Tennesseans earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, valued at slightly over $16,000 a year for an individual and $27,000 for a family of three.

Five key areas of the governor’s plan include: a fiscally sound and sustainable program; providing two new private market choices for Tennesseans; shifting the delivery model and payment of health care in Tennessee from fee-for-service to outcomes based; incentivizing Tennesseans to be more engaged and to take more personal responsibility in their health; and preparing participants for eventual transition to commercial health coverage.

The amendment to the state’s existing waiver is being made available today for a 30-day public comment period.

TCCA says screw the sunshine laws

Apparently, the Tennessee County Commissioners Association doesn't like the state's sunshine laws. I mean why else would else would it want to create new sub standards that would allow commissioners to operate behind closed doors?

Yeah, I know. A lot of cliches were thrown in there. Who cares? I don't.

Anyhoo, I doubt the Knox County Commission would consider the proposal, but apparently other county officials across the state are.

Here's what's going on:

The TCCA wants to allow any number of members of a commission, school board or city council to meet and discuss public business, so long as there is not a quorum. So basically, they're championing behind-closed door, secret, smoky meetings. And what they're essentially saying to the public is: "Up Yours!"

Think about it. You get a handful of folks to meet and figure out how they want to vote. Then a member of that group meets with a handful of other members.

Nice.

Here's a release sent to me by Tennessee Coalition for Open Government Executive Director Frank Gibson:

The president of the Tennessee County Commissioners Association is mounting a statewide campaign to get the state legislature to weaken the state sunshine law.

Under the proposal by Williamson County Commissioner Bob Barnwell any number of members of a county commission, school board, or city council – up to a quorum -- could meet and discuss public business. The public would only have to be given notice if a quorum of the body was present.

Under the proposal, for example, 26 members of the 40-member Nashville Metro Council could meet and discuss issues without it being considered a meeting. That’s because a quorum there is 27.

Commissioner Barnwell is urging county commissions across the state to endorse his proposal with resolutions that ask their local state representatives and senators to support the measure when the General Assembly reconvenes in January. He has reportedly secured a sponsor already.

TPA members should be on the lookout for action by local governing bodies and provide coverage so readers and local good government groups can register their sentiment.

The campaign surfaced in early September when the Shelbyville Times-Gazette reported on a regional TCCA meeting at Henry Horton State Park.

Barnwell complained there that local elected officials have to operate under rules that are different than rules that apply to the General Assembly.

Under the 37-year-old “sunshine law,” two or more members of a government body may not get together in private to “deliberate” toward a decision. If it can be proven in court that they did, the decision in question can be voided by a judge or jury. Under rules of the House and Senate, a quorum has to be present for a gathering to be considered a “meeting.”

Tennessee’s sunshine law was passed in 1974 and has been viewed as a model of government transparency. Nothing in the law prevents two members of a governing body from talking to one another. It’s deliberating and conducting public business that is restricted.

The law was presumed to cover the legislature for 26 years. In 2001, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that the law did not apply to the General Assembly because of two provisions of the state Constitution.

Article II, Section 22, states: “The doors of each house and of committees of the whole shall be kept open, unless when the business shall be such as ought to be kept secret.” The General Assembly has rules that limit the “when” to include matters of state and national security and parts of impeachment proceedings except when a legislator is subject of the ouster.

Another constitutional provision says one legislature cannot bind a subsequent General Assembly. Article II, Section 12, states: “Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings…”

The lawsuit stemmed from a series of closed meetings by House and Senate finance committee members when a state income tax was being actively discussed.

The principal difference of the bodies is that the legislature was created by the Constitution, while local governments are creatures of the General Assembly.

Barnwell’s proposal resurfaced in early October when he persuaded his own county commission to endorse the proposal.

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” the Times-Gazette quoted Barnwell as saying.

This issue came up last in 2007 when an open government study committee of legislators, local government officials, media and citizens groups considered the quorum standard. Proposed by Shelby County, the study panel subsequently rejected it after city and county mayors around the state objected to small groups of commissioners and city council members getting together in secret before meetings and ganging up on them and their initiatives.

Even though some county commissions endorsed that proposal, county mayors said those discussions should be held out in the open as the sunshine law required.

- Frank Gibson