Whoa whoa whoa, Tennesseans don't like taxes????
Surely we'll get a bunch of Vandy poll stories in the coming days. Here's one announcing Tennesseans oppose the internet sales tax. Also, being humans, pretty much all new taxes.
Get salty
Chip Saltsman joins the Joe Carr campaign.
Inbox:
Rep. Joe Carr announced today that veteran GOP strategist Chip Saltsman has joined his team in his bid to win the GOP primary in Tennessee's 4th Congressional district. The announcement follows Carr's recent entrance into the race earlier this month and a highly successful fundraising period.
In just 6 weeks, Carr's exploratory committee raised over $205,000 (nearly double the amount raised by incumbent Rep. Scott Desjarlais during the most recent filing period).
"We are excited that Chip will lead our team," Carr stated. "Chip brings significant firepower and experience to our campaign. His excellent track record of managing both statewide and national campaigns is invaluable. Chip is a leader and proven winner in the conservative movement. I'm thankful for his friendship and for the opportunity to serve with him to advance the conservative principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility and state sovereignty that are among the pillars of American exceptionalism."
Saltsman, a native Tennessean, is no stranger to GOP politics. He was elected Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party in 1998 and quickly faced a crisis of conscience when Republican Governor Don Sundquist unveiled a state income tax proposal as the centerpiece of his second term. Saltsman remained true to his fiscal conservatism and refused to betray his conservative principles. He actively opposed the income tax and helped organize its defeat by joining forces with grassroots conservatives across the state to launch a tax revolt.
Saltsman gained national prominence when he served as National Campaign Manager for Governor Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign. He engineered the Arkansas governor's shocking IowaCaucus win that propelled him to frontrunner status. Prior to managing the Huckabee presidential campaign, Saltsman led the seemingly insurmountable effort to defeat then Vice President Al Gore in his home state of Tennessee.
"I'm very thankful to Rep. Carr for the opportunity to lead his team. Joe is an outstanding conservative leader with an outstanding record of leadership and accomplishment in making Tennessee a better place to live, work and raise families," Saltsman said.
"Tennesseans in the 4th district have a clear choice in this election and a tremendous opportunity to send a conservative champion to Washington, DC. It's clear our country is mired in both an economic and moral crisis. Joe's principled, steady conservative leadership will reorient us toward our first principles and lead us through these storms," he added.
Prior to joining the Carr campaign, Saltsman managed Congressman Chuck Fleischmann's campaigns.
New commishes at DIDD and DCS
Inbox:
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today announced Debra Payne as the new commissioner of the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) as Jim Henry becomes the permanent commissioner at the Department of Children’s Services (DCS).
Payne currently serves as deputy commissioner of DIDD and Henry as the interim commissioner of DCS.
“These two departments handle some of the state’s most difficult work concerning our most vulnerable citizens,” Haslam said. “I want to thank Debbie for taking on this new role in such a young department. Her experience and hard work will continue to serve the state of Tennessee very well.”
As deputy commissioner of program operations at DIDD, Payne has overseen two development centers, a statewide community-based service delivery system supported by more than 2,000 employees, 475 community providers and three regional offices.
“I want to thank Gov. Haslam for the opportunity to continue to serve Tennesseans with disabilities,” Payne said. “I look forward to working with this department and all of our providers in continuing to offer quality care.”
Payne has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Middle Tennessee State University. She has served in numerous capacities throughout her career and is credited with assembling a nationally recognized Protection from Harm system as the statewide director of Protection from Harm for DIDD.
Payne lives in Mt. Juliet with her husband, Mike, and she has three children, two step-children and one granddaughter.
Henry was the first commissioner of DIDD, which was formerly a division of the Department of Finance and Administration before becoming a state department on January 15, 2011. He has headed up both DIDD and DCS since February when he became interim commissioner of DCS.
“I am honored to serve in this capacity with Gov. Haslam,” Henry said. “We have taken important steps at DCS, and we will continue to strengthen our processes and policies as well as continue to improve the department as a whole.”
The appointments are effective June 1.
Well that was unexpected
The mayor reverses and plans pay raises:
Reversing his initial budget recommendation, Mayor Karl Dean has agreed to spend an additional $6 million to give 5,000 to 6,000 Metro employees additional pay raises in the next fiscal year, officials said Monday.
Qualified employees are generally supposed to receive so-called increment raises regularly as they move through a pay grade, but they haven’t gotten them for the past four years. When Dean’s administration unveiled its plan for the 2013-14 budget year on April 30, the raises — which are typically about 3 percent — were missing again, though the mayor did propose a regular 1.5 percent increase for all employees, effective Jan. 1.
Our walled cities
The moratorium on annexation is now in effect.
The law, signed last week, halts forced annexations of residential and farm property already in progress prior to April 15 until May 15, 2014, unless a city can persuade county commissions to approve them.
New annexations of such property are banned during the same time frame unless property owners want to become part of a city.
That's intended to provide time for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations to study how a 1999 urban planning law, intended to bring order to annexations, has worked. TACIR serves as a forum on state and local issues.
"I very much appreciate the governor signing the bill in that it has the minimum restrictions on the cities and it does not restrict the growth of or development in commercial, industry and retail areas," Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, the House sponsor, said Monday. "It only protects homes and farm property used primarily for agricultural process. It only protects ma and pa and ma and pa's farm."
Survivor Series
Lamar Alexander, continuing his run of bellicose metaphors, says he's going to win this Senate race Colin Powell-style, shock and awe style.
Failure to flaunt
The Dean reports that candidates failed to report 181 PAC and corporate contributions:
House Republican Chairman Glen Casada, sponsor of a bill that critics say would undermine the present law, was found to have two unreported $1,000 contributions from political action committees. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner, who staunchly opposed the bill, had more unreported donations than anyone on the list — 18 totaling $19,875.
