(The Center Square) – The Tennessee Legislature completed its special session on Tuesday passing just four bills, three that went through the Senate earlier this week and an appropriations bill to fund them.
The largest compromise on Tuesday was related to the appropriations bill, where the Senate agreed to take up several House amendments it had previously removed from the bill.
That included $30 million in safety upgrades for higher education institutions and $50 million in non-recurring funding for community mental health agencies in the state.
The safety upgrades, Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, explained, would go to Austin Peay, Tennessee State, Middle Tennessee State, East Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, Memphis and the University of Tennessee for a variety of safety reasons. The funding will come from a $50 million new prison fund in last year’s budget.
Watson said that the Senate was concerned with funding the bills and being able to close the books on last fiscal year after revenues came in $330 million below the revised estimates. Lawmakers were more confident in the financial state after further discussion.
The safety upgrades include exterior lighting, security cameras, new door hardware, blue lights, laminated ballistic film on windows, improved site signage and landscaping on the campuses.
“It is not new spending,” Watson assured members of the Senate. “It is the reallocation of money we have already appropriated.”
The Senate also agreed to put $1.1 million in funding for an ad campaign on gun safety back into the appropriations and lowered the bonus pool for mental health workers from $16 million to $12 million with the additional $4 million going to behavioral health safety net grants.
The Senate agreed to the $50 million for mental health agencies as an earmark out of funding expected to be reverted from TennCare. Last year, $508 million was reverted from TennCare due to a large influx of federal pandemic funds into the program and a large number is expected again this year, Watson said.
The three bills that passed along with appropriations included bills addressing eliminating taxes on handgun safety devices, the communication timeline of criminal court proceedings to the Tennessee Bureau of Information, and a bill creating a statewide report on human trafficking.
Senate Bill 7085, the handgun safety bill passed through the Senate committee, puts in new requirements to add safe storage training to future handgun safety courses and also eliminates sales taxes on firearm safes and safety devices starting Nov. 1.
Senate Bill 7086 requires a clerk of the circuit or general sessions court to notify the Tennessee Bureau of Information of the result of criminal proceedings within 72 hours instead of within 30 days.
Senate Bill 7088 will create a new child and human trafficking crimes report from the Tennessee Bureau of Information’s human trafficking unit. The report will be due in December each year before the Legislature begins its session.
