Republican Senator Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro is an insurance salesman. He has taken in over $20,000 in campaign cash from big insurance and large homebuilding special interests. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he sponsored a new state law to force small contractors and subconstractors to spend their hard-earned profits with him and his insurance buddies instead of spending it on their families in tough economic times.
Public Chapter 1041, sponsored by Senator Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) and Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) was lobbied for heavily by the Tennessee Hombuilders Association (a special interest group that represents large development companies) and the Tennessee Insurors Association, who greased the wheels of government with copious amounts of campaign cash for Republican lawmakers in order to further the interests of big business over the little guy. It would require all contractors to purchase workers’ compensation insurance even if their only employee is themselves. The new law took effect January 1st, and small contractors are howling mad about it:
Gerry Fridlund, owner of Skybright Metal Roofing in Memphis, found out about the law the hard way when his insurance company sent him a bill for $4,300 last summer.
“I told them I wasn’t going to pay it,” Fridlund told NIT. “When I asked who was responsible for this I was told the Home Builders Association pushed this through. I think they wanted to stop the little guy from bidding up against the big boys. They want to squeeze the sole proprietors and make it difficult for people to start small businesses.”
The new law’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro), is himself an insurance salesman who benefits from raising premiums on small contractor businesses. During his current term, special interest PACs representing large home builders, developers and insurance industries gave more than $20,000 to Ketron’s campaign war chest.
The new law’s House sponsor, Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol), has received $18,000 from special interest PACs representing large home builders, developers and insurance industries during his current term.
Its all fine with Bill Ketron, who will be sending out grossly inflated insurance bills to his customers this year. He doesn’t really care that jobs may be killed to pay for it as long as he gets paid.
Thankfully, Rep. Joe Pitts (D - Clarksville) and Sen. Tim Barnes (D-Clarksville) have listened to the voices of Tennessee’s small business owners and are seeking to delay the enforcement of the new law in Special Session of the General Assembly next week. HB1899 and its companion bill SB2055 delay Ketron’s law until July 1st of 2010. As usual, its up to Democrats to finally stand up for small business owners when republicans and their big business cronies try to sneak in sweetheart deals for themselves.
Caption reads, 'The scene is reminiscent of Judas joining hands in prayer with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane moments before the soldiers arrived to arrest him.'
Tim Rudd, Rutherford County Republican and Tennessee Republican Party Executive Committee Member, sees Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) and Jesus (God’s only begotten Son, Savior of All Mankind, Member of the Holy Trinity) as equals, who were both betrayed by one of their own. Jesus was betrayed by Judas, condemning him to die a horrible death on the very cross he was forced to carry and had his side pierced by a Roman soldier’s sword while others cast lots for his clothing. Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) was simply denied the Speakership of the Tennessee House when Rep. Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton) joined with 49 Democrats to elect himself Speaker.
Its all the same to Rudd, who compares Mumpower to Jesus and Williams to Judas in the following graphic, which he sent by email to his fellow Executive Committee members. Williams was denied membership in the Tennessee Republican Party for the move, and Rudd wants to keep it that way even though some are pushing for Williams’ return to the republican fold.
What Rudd has done is sacreligious, which is especially egregious during the Christmas season when Christians celebrate Jesus’ birth. Folks across the state are understandably upset with Tim Rudd for comparing their Lord and Savior to a politician. Here’s an example from Betsy Phillips:
Tim Rudd, sir, that you would even make something like this and send it to other people pretty much proves that you are a terrible Christian. And I don’t say that mildly.
Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus say, “Please, use my suffering to illustrate your petty political problems.” And really, Rudd, how dare you try to pressure anyone into feeling like not doing what you want is akin to standing against Jesus.
You are not Jesus. Jason Mumpower is not Jesus.
People who do things other than what you would like them to do ARE NOT BETRAYING JESUS.
And, frankly, it’s evil for you to suggest that they are.
During a time of unprecedented budget constraints, mass state employee layoffs and furloughs, and penny pinching on the part of Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen, our new Republican State Comptroller Justin Wilson has decided to give his office a personal stimulus check on the Tennessee taxpayers’ dime.
Luckily, Democrat Joe Haynes, who sits on the Fiscal Review Committee, caught the error and is calling Wilson out. WSMV has the story.
A 52-year-old state law stipulates that the Rutherford County Commission, not the mayor, should have chosen defense attorneys to handle a lawsuit filed by the family whose rezoning request for Bible Park USA was rejected.
According to the “Private Acts of 1957 Chapter 67″ charter between the state and the county, “no official, agent, department, branch or board of said County shall employ other attorneys to be paid out of the public revenues of said County without the approval of the Quarterly County Court (now called the county commission) of said County in advance of such employment.”
Mayor Ernest Burgess, however, made the decision after consulting with County Attorney Jim Cope behind closed doors.
“That’s an out-of-date statute, and we’re going to update it in the next legislative session starting in January,” Burgess said during an interview from his office at the County Courthouse.
How many more embarrassing and expensive mistakes is Mayor Burgess going to dump on the tax payers of Rutherford County? The law the Mayor claims is “out-of-date” is the law, and even the former chair of the Rutherford County Republican Party says what every law-abiding citizen knows.
Commissioner D.C. “Jim” Daniel wishes the 21-member commission had made the call on hiring the attorneys to defend the county.
“I believe we ought to follow the law,” said Daniel, a retired attorney. “The law is the law. Otherwise, you have chaos if you run around contrary to law.”
Chaos is exactly what the tax payers are paying for under Republican County Mayor Ernest Burgess, and we’re all paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher taxes for it thanks to Mayor Burgess. Rutherford County deserves a County Mayor and a County Attorney with the moral compass to uphold the rule of law. It is up to the voters to decide whether the criminal behavior of Republican County Mayor Ernest Burgess and bad advice of our county attorney represents the best interests of our community or the selfish interests of a men who think the law doesn’t apply to them.
Read more about Mayor Burgess’s costly lapses of character and judgment:
Rep Joe Carr: I didn't know I took all that money.
Rep. Carr must think Rutherford County voters are stupid enough to believe he inadvertently requested expense money, inadvertently signed for the check and inadvertently drove himself to the bank to cash them.
This weekend’s Tennessean focused more on Rep. Joe Carr (R-48) out spending every single lawmaker in the House when it came to requesting $171 per day for hotel and meal expenses.
Rep. Carr had the nerve to tell the newspaper that he “inadvertently” requested more money for hotel and meal expenses than lawmakers who live in Memphis and Knoxville. Rep. Carr lives only 30 miles from the Capitol, and no one seems to know how he could have run up so many expenses.
“Among area lawmakers, Carr, a first-term lawmaker, claimed the most in per diem expenses in the first quarter of 2009, filing for $9,234 in charges. Carr said he inadvertently ran up the per diems while preparing for his first session in the state legislature.
“Because the state finances were in such a mess, after the election and before the session, I took several trips to Nashville,” Carr said. “I didn’t realize that every time I came to the legislature, they did a per diem.”
Carr said he did not become aware of the extent of the charges until media attention was called to it in the wake of Williams’ letter. He pledged to claim fewer days in the future.
During the last legislative session, Rep. Carr tried to deny extended unemployment benefits to residents in his district, but then he made bogus expense requests for hotels and meals he never purchased and got his own unemployment stimulus check compliments of Tennessee tax payers.
Now that the media caught him with his hand in the tax payer’s wallet, Rep. Joe Carr has promised to claim fewer bogus expense requests in the future. That must make the voters of Lascassas feel much better.
A federal judge has granted a temporary order barring Republican Election Commission Chairman Tom Walker from firing Rutherford County Election Administrator Hooper Penuel.
The order is the latest in a federal lawsuit against Walker and seven other Republicans who plaintiffs claim are violating the United States Constitution with politically motivated firings of county election administrators.
County election administrators are appointed by local election commissions, and state law required those commissions to have Republican majorities because the GOP gained control of the legislature last year.
Some of those new commissions have ousted election administrators who were appointed by commissions with Democratic majorities. In their lawsuit, the eight administrators say the moves are unlawful.
At a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge John Nixon approved a temporary restraining order barring Rutherford’s election commission from moving to fire Penuel.
Penuel is the only one of the eight defendants who still works as an election administrator, though court filings say he was told his firing is imminent.
“This decision puts the brake on what appears to be a wholesale removal of election administrators across the state,” Forrester said. “Why would you fire people who have such a wealth of experience and knowledge of the election process if it weren’t political patronage?
“These firings and the refusal of Secretary of State Tre Hargett to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act leads me to believe there is an organized effort by Republicans to obstruct fair and verifiable elections.”
A battle is brewing in the state over a new law requiring the use of paper ballots in the 2010 elections, and Secretary of State Tre Hargett says the legislature was too busy with other things to fix it.
Last year the House and Senate passed the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) requiring every county in the state use paper ballots in next year’s elections. The bill passed almost unanimously, and the Gov. signed the bill into law. But the newly appointed Secretary of State has spent the last nine months complaining about the law instead of working to implement the expressed will of the people of Tennessee.
Over the past nine months, however, Secretary of State Tre Hargett and State Election Coordinator Mark Goins have been busy instead working through Sen. Bill Ketron (R-13) to delay the law’s implementation until after the 2010 elections.
Rather than spend the greater part of the past year addressing their concerns with the law through Capitol Hill, the Secretary of State’s office has done nothing but waste time. Tennessee voters shouldn’t be surprised.
In the last legislature, the Republican controlled House and Senate wasted months on abortion, guns and booze bills. When they finally decided in the last minutes of session to get around to important issues like election reform, they failed the people of this great state.
Here in Rutherford County, the Election Commission Chair Tom Walker attempted to violate state law and told several people he didn’t care what the state law says. Another Republican election commissioner, Dorris Jones, was quoted as saying “We’ve got some crazy laws in this county.” Sen. Ketron’s success in declawing the state’s Ethics Commission conveniently makes investigating corrupt law makers a lower priority for the Registry of Election Finance.
There is a reason the Republican controlled House and Senate delayed addressing concerns over the use of paper ballots in 2010. Protecting the constitutional right we have for our vote to count in 2010 was trumped this year by a Republican legislative agenda more focused on abortion, guns in bars and booze bills. When given the chance to serve the people of Tennessee, Republicans chose instead to pander to fear, erode the safe guards of our liberties and freedoms, and ignore the priorities of Tennessee’s working families.
Rutherford County Election Commission Chair Tom Walker continues his open and blatant defiance of state law and demonstrates why he must resign his position immediately and restore voter confidence in our county’s election process.
Here is today’s Daily News Journal on this developing story. Pay close attention to Walker’s careless statements that he answers to no one, including the laws of the state of Tennessee.
Rutherford County Election Commission Chairman Tom Walker denied media access to applications for administrator of elections Tuesday despite the documents being public records, according to state law.
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Attempts to reach Walker by phone for an interview Tuesday were unsuccessful. The staff of current Administrator of Elections Hooper Penuel notified Walker that The Daily News Journal made an open records request to review the information.
“What I was told by my staff assistant was that (Walker) said he was not going to place any applicant’s name under the bus,” said Penuel, noting more than one person in the office heard the comment.
Hello fellow Democrats. I’m pleased to inform you that this year’s session of the Tennessee Legislature has finally come to an end. It was a long and arduous one for our own Curt Cobb and Kent Coleman, who had to wade through 142 gun bills and several booze bills sponsored by our republican Senator Bill Ketron and Rep. Joe Carr . At last, republicans proposed a budget that killed recruitment dollars for a private solar power plant that would bring 30,000 jobs to Tennessee , put Pre-K education on the chopping block , gutted the Ethics Commission , repealed the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act , stripped funding for MTSU’s Education Building , halted badly needed road and bridge projects, and even refused to erect statues for Tennessee’s Nobel Peace Prize recipients! Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle (D - Memphis) likened it to cuttin’ and runnin’ and Governor Bredesen called it “stupid” . Our republican Senators Jim Tracy and Bill Ketron quickly voted for this “stupid” budget, and refused to help MTSU and its Education Building project. Luckily, Democrats in the House were able to fix most of this disastrous budget and forced Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (R-Bristol) to surrender . We won this round.
But, we weren’t able to save the Ethics Commission, even though Rep. Kent Coleman tried his best to stand up for ethics in government. We also have to live with guns in bars, and paper-verified voting was postponed for another year even though we’re sitting on $34 million to implement it! Bottom line - we need more Democrats in the Tennessee Legislature. This website offers ways to get involved, contribute to the effort, stay updated on the issues, and stay connected. Your continued help and involvement is appreciated.
Todd, who seems to enjoy playing the love-hate relationship game with the Capitol press corps, told the House Finance Budget Subcommittee today that the ethics commission in its current form was the media’s fault, not the result of that pesky Operation Tennessee Waltz bribery scandal.
“If you’re going to conduct something illegal, you’re going to do it anyway, regardless of what kind of ethics you’ve got in place,” Todd told House Speaker Kent Williams, R-Elizabethton, when Williams asked about workload of the current ethics commission.
“I think there was a rush in judgment with regards to some of the media outlets that helped drive that in the state. They probably don’t like what I said, but they don’t like a lot of things I say.”
It’s unfortunate that Tennessee needs such a body to keep an eye on legislators, but the record shows that our state lawmakers are no more honest than the general public — and probably less so. And once they arrive in Nashville, many of them don’t know how to say “no” to smooth-talking, big-spending lobbyists.
Party affiliation makes no difference in this Ethics Commission argument. Democrats and Republicans alike can fall prey to temptations on Capitol Hill, and because the nature of politics and power is corrupting, Tennessee needs to maintain independent checks and balances to ensure lobbyists and legislators are playing by the rules.
Sen. Ketron continues to work hard on a plan to gut the very body that investigates corruption on Capitol Hill. It’s a curious move that would ultimately weaken the state legislature’s effort to hold elected officials accountable to the rule of law and the people they represent.
Sen. Ketron says it is important to gut the ethics commission because 98% of his colleagues are good, honest people. Rutherford County knows better than that, and so does Sam Stockard.
It seems more than anything that Ketron and Ramsey want to eliminate employees, including the director, and cut spending by about $330,000. There’s nothing wrong with cutting personnel costs if people are sitting around doing nothing. Otherwise, what is the rationale?
Ketron was quoted in the initial story on this issue as saying the Ethics Commission should focus less on enforcement. He also said 98 percent of legislators are honest folks and he simply wants to “streamline” government.
It’s comforting to know that Ketron can look into the minds and souls of our state’s lawmakers and determine they are honest people. Maybe that’s why he serves on the Senate Ethics Committee. However, cutting people probably means less enforcement, and most Tennesseans agree our lawmakers and lobbyists can’t always be trusted.
Under his proposal, Ketron said the Commission of Ethics and Election Finance would have one director and two deputy directors. Overall, though, three of the Ethics Commission’s nine people would be cut.
Sen. Bill Ketron (R-13) is sponsoring a bill (SB 0872) to delay the implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act. The law requires all counties to switch to optical scanned paper ballots and will be paid for by $25 million in federal funds from the Help America Vote Act.
“When the TVCA is implemented, Tennessee’s elections will be more secure, more accurate, and less expensive. There’s no good reason to wait,” said TNDP Chair Chip Forrester.
The TVCA was passed with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by Governor Phil Bredesen on June 5, 2008. The TVCA requires that all Tennessee counties make the switch to paper ballots before the November 2010 election.
Currently, only Hamilton and Pickett counties use paper ballots. The other 93 counties use paperless touch-screen voting machines, also known as Direct Record Electronic (DRE) machines. DREs are expensive to maintain, prone to error, and have no mechanism in place to produce verifiable results or meaningful recounts.
This could be called the Year of Guns and Booze in the state Legislature.
During one of the worst economic years in history, legislators have put their focus anywhere but on the budget. In addition to a load of bills dealing with weapons, including allowing conceal-carry permit holders to take their guns into bars, restaurants and state and local parks, legislation allowing new distilleries and wine in grocery stores is getting notice.
Two local legislators are sponsoring a bill to make it easier for distilleries to open.
Rutherford County deserves leaders in the Senate and House that work hard for our families, not special interests.
The editorial board calls Sen. Ketron’s latest effort a “slap in the face” to those of us seeking good government.
We’re still waiting for Sen. Ketron to explain why he wants to gut the very body that protects our state from corrupt politicians, but do we really expect Sen Ketron to answer to us?
Sen. Bill Ketron’s legislation to merge the Tennessee Ethics Commission with another body to cut personnel and save money is a slap in the face of Tennesseans who are crying out for good government.
Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, wants to reshape the independent body that oversees legislative ethics, combining it with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance to create the Commission of Ethics and Election Finance.
Three of nine Ethics Commission staff positions, including the director, would be eliminated, saving the state $338,000 annually in personnel costs. We commend Ketron for seeking savings in state government.
But just three years after the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz sting caught five lawmakers taking bribes to back legislation, the Tennessee Ethics Commission doesn’t need to be watered down and pushed into obscurity.
Quite the opposite, Tennessee needs to maintain an independent body to let lawmakers and elected officials across the state know it is serious about holding down corruption.
Ketron tried to railroad the Ethics Commission from the very beginning, and he’s still working at it, which is perplexing.
The proposal, sponsored by Murfreesboro Sen. Bill Ketron, would rework the state’s independent body that oversees lawmaker ethics three years after it was put in place. Ketron says the change would save money and make both agencies more effective.
Critics say it would do away with the only agency in the state that can ensure lawmakers carry out the ethics reforms passed in 2006 after five legislators were caught taking bribes in the FBI sting known as Tennessee Waltz.
“If the General Assembly wants to save 100, 200 grand, there’s better ways to save it,” said Clint Brewer, director of government accountability for the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an organization that tracks the state legislature. “There are a lot of other places where you can cut.”
Under Sen. Ketron’s plan, the state will eliminate three of the nine ethics commission staff positions. Sen. Ketron ought to be ashamed of himself, but we’ll settle for a simple explanation.
Why does Sen. Ketron want to cut funds and staff for the very body charged with keeping corruption out of the state legislature? Contact Sen. Ketron and report back here in comments:
Sen. Bill Ketron
13 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243-0213
Phone (615) 741-6853
Fax (615) 741-7200
sen.bill.ketron@capitol.tn.gov
Republican Senator Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro is an insurance salesman. He has taken in over $20,000 in campaign cash from big insurance and large homebuilding special interests. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he sponsored a new state law to force small contractors and subconstractors to spend their hard-earned profits with him and his insurance buddies instead of spending it on their families in tough economic times.
Rep. Curry Todd (R-95) repeated 
