Intrigue is ramping up in advance of a Senate Republican Caucus vote that will choose the next lieutenant governor, the person first in line to succeed an incapacitated governor.
Caucus Chairman Ken Yager confirmed Thursday leaders are considering allowing Sen. Brent Taylor, if he wins the 9th District congressional race next week, to vote by proxy in the caucus officers decision, an atypical move. Taylor’s vote is needed by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin, who’s trying to ward off Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta for the state’s second most important political job.
The conflict comes up because the state Senate Republican vote is set for Nov. 10, the same day a congressional caucus election is scheduled in Washington, D.C. Presumably, Taylor would have to be in the nation’s capital if he defeats Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson next week.
The caucus vote in Nashville will decide the outcome because Senate Republicans hold a 27-6 supermajority over Democrats.
“The subject has been discussed, but no decision has been made,” Yager said Thursday. He couldn’t tell how much support exists within the caucus for a move to let Taylor’s attorney cast a vote in his place.
Yager, who said he wants more discussion before deciding whether he would support the move, couldn’t recall anyone being allowed to vote by proxy previously.
Taylor, who is also running in the District 31 state Senate race against Democratic candidate David Weatherspoon, is believed to be backing Johnson of Franklin over Bailey. Taylor declined to say whom he’s supporting and pointed out contested caucus races are done by secret ballot.
The race is extremely tight as the candidates battle for 14 votes, the majority needed to replace outgoing Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, who is stepping down from the legislature after nearly 50 years.
Two to three caucus members are uncommitted, and the competitors are trying to maintain their support, sort of like keeping squirrels in a cage.
The discussion about letting Taylor vote absentee marks another effort to give Johnson an advantage in the caucus vote.
Leaders kicked around the possibility of removing Sen. Janice Bowling from the caucus after she endorsed independent gubernatorial candidate David Hatley instead of the Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the odds-on favorite to win Tuesday.
Bowling recently told the Lookout she doesn’t believe the caucus has any “basis” to remove her, and it doesn’t appear leadership will try to kick her out before the vote. There is a chance, though, they could remove her afterward, even if it makes them look a little heavy-handed.
A billion here, a billion there
With an eye toward the future, Tennessee’s Department of Transportation did exactly as predicted: awarded a bid to a toll-road builder and then started finagling with the money.
The state’s Transportation Modernization Board selected a group called DriveTN for a $9.2 billion toll project from downtown Nashville to Murfreesboro, based mainly on the consortium’s guarantee to pay the state nearly $25 billion.
Initially, the group said it would pay $1.5 billion up front and the rest during an eight-year construction phase.
But a new “concession agreement” with the partnership led by Spain-based Ferrovial sets up a financial structure allowing the group to pay $7.7 billion during construction and $140 billion over the rest of the 50-year contract.
Tennessee toll lane contractor promises to pay state nearly $148 billion
Ouch, did you say $140 mill? It wasn’t a typo.
“When all payments are converted into today’s dollars, the overall value to TDOT remains the same” as the original concession, the department said in a clarification statement.
Gee whizzakers, Toto, that explains everything.
The department came out with the explanation more than a day after the Lookout asked whether the $140 billion included in a Tuesday press release was correct. After all, it seems a little steep.
It probably won’t suit the other bidding group, 24 Choice Lanes Partners, that challenged the state’s bid decision, though it sort of falls in line with that consortium’s legal argument.
“As litigation is still pending, we’re unable to comment or answer additional questions at this time,” TDOT said in its clarification.
Democratic state Sen. Heidi Campbell isn’t too happy either.
“This is a time-worn trick,” Campbell said, arguing the bidder didn’t add tens of billions to the deal. “They moved the payments to our grandchildren’s lifetimes and hoped we’d be impressed by the bigger number.”
The money is the same, it’s just added up over half a century and “inflated by time,” Campbell said. “Nothing got bigger, it just got later.”
The Nashville lawmaker added that the state’s announcement describes a payment schedule very similar to what the plaintiffs alleged in the lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court. Campbell noted that the state still hasn’t made the contract public and raised questions about where the $1.5 billion up-front payment went.
This is a time-worn trick. They moved the payments to our grandchildren’s lifetimes and hoped we’d be impressed by the bigger number.
– Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville
Another question could involve maintenance costs on the toll lanes and potential penalties for the state if it improves the free lanes on I-24 or adds mass transit.
Campbell said she welcomes a Comptroller’s Office review of the contract and asked the transportation department to release the full concession agreement immediately, not after the state closes the deal.
“If this is as good a deal as the governor says, there’s no reason to keep it in the dark,” Campbell said.
Gov. Bill Lee, who endorsed the deal in August by saying it would help pay for road projects statewide, downplayed the restructuring this week.
Asked whether the financial change dilutes the value of the deal for the state and increases Tennessee’s risk, Lee said it does the opposite.
“We actually think it increases the value because it generates a long-term funding stream for our state,” Lee said.
The governor acknowledged there are advantages to taking the money in a lump sum, but he said long-term payments will help the state avoid raising the gas tax. That’s plenty of justification for resolving congested interstates with toll roads.
“To infinity and beyond”
The governor announced this week Tennessee is in the hunt for a U.S. Space Academy to be run by NASA to train astronauts, scientists and engineers.
Lee said Tennessee is “well-positioned to potentially be a front-runner” for the academy, which would go on a Coffee County megasite and fit with Arnold Engineering Development Center, University of Tennessee Space Institute and Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma, as well as the Huntsville Space Center. “That corridor is uniquely positioned, and our state is uniquely positioned. We are innovatively leading in quantum, in nuclear, and it makes a lot of sense for NASA to consider a location like Coffee County for a space center.”
Texas is putting $100 million toward a bid for the academy, and Colorado, home to the NASA Aerospace Workforce Hub, is going for the project announced in August by President Donald Trump. It’s supposed to be similar to one of the nation’s military service academies, which cost upwards of $1 billion a year to run, and everyone knows we have plenty of money, even with a national debt of $40.56 trillion and rising by the second, which could have us all living in the ghetto soon enough.
“Too many lives they’ve spent across the ocean / Too much been spent upon the moon”*
*“Things Going On,” Lynyrd Skynyrd
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