LEGISLATIVE COLUMN
Capitol Notes | Peggy Sue, the Beagle Hound
Even a dog knows the difference between being tripped over and kicked. Special Session. The General Assembly is like a thunderstorm this summer. It rumbles all the time. The most recent rumble of thunder comes in response to President Biden’s Path Out of the Pandemic announcement of an executive order requiring federal employees to be vaccinated. The President has also signed an executive order extending this requirement to employees of contractors that do business with the federal government. The President also announced that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will issue an emergency rule requiring all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure either that their workplace is fully vaccinated or tests negative for Covid-19 at least once a week. Within the space of five days, two state house members have asked for an extraordinary session to deal with this national issue. No word yet from Governor Bill Lee or the Senate Leadership for that matter. State Revenues. The department of revenue continues to report healthy monthly state revenue collections. While Commissioner Butch Eley is as skittish as a cat in a dog pound by stating that future growth remains a concern, the state has been on a roll. The state has enjoyed
good revenue success during pandemic times. While our Nashville hospitality service provider friends and others across the state have struggled mightily, home improvement stores and furniture stores and internet sales have been good sources of sales tax revenue. For the entire state, general fund revenues were $1.9 billion more than the budgeted estimate from the state funding board. While state revenues are a dry topic, in a low tax, low service state like Tennessee, the healthy collections allow state policy makers to enact a balanced budget, keep a fully funded K-12 education program and TennCare program, have a debt free highway construction program and maintain a well-funded consolidated retirement system for state and local government employees. Judicial Elections. Each general sessions court slot and each state trial court slot will have a general election on August 4, 2022, for a full eight year term beginning September 1, 2022. The first day a candidate may pick up a qualifying petition from the election commission office for the May 3, 2022, primary is Monday, December 20, 2021. The next campaign financial disclosure report is due January 31, 2022, and the qualifying deadline is noon on Thursday, February 17, 2022.
Calendar Notes. Make time for your human’s Covid-19 vaccination and miss the pandemic of the unvaccinated. No doctor and only a beagle here, but I did grow up on a puppy farm. Ivermectin is a great drug to treat beef cattle for parasites such as worms. Ivermectin, however, does not prevent or cure Covid-19. The State and NBA will be closed on Thursday, November 11 to observe the Veterans Day holiday, and Thursday and Friday, November 25 and 26 for the Thanksgiving holidays. The NBA gets really busy in the fall. Mark your calendars for events such as the Law Day Luncheon on October 12, the Nashville Bar Foundation Fellow Dinner on November 5, and the Fall Memorial Service on November 18. n PEGGY SUE is fond of the classic 1957 Buddy Holly song. When hunting legislative news or biscuits, she is hard to contact.
We Already Knew That. The journal, Scientific Reports, recently published a study by German scholars noting that dogs may well be able to distinguish human intentional and unintentional conduct. This suggests dogs have at least one aspect of something known as the Theory of Mind - an ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, something long regarded as uniquely human. A pool of 51 dogs participated in the study. We would have been struck for cause on voir dire.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 | NASHVILLE BAR JOURNAL
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