Tennessee Lawmakers Adjourn Legislative Session

The Tennessee General Assembly has adjourned without a final showdown over a contentious gun issue. A bill seeking to allow employees to store weapons in their vehicles parked on company lots was opposed by Governor Bill Haslam and the Republican speakers of the House and Senate, and lawmakers avoided bringing it to the floor in the final day of the session.

The legislature passed a more than $31 billion dollar spending plan that includes starting a phaseout of Tennessee's inheritance tax and cutting the state's sales tax on groceries. The final major piece of Governor Haslam's remaining legislative agenda - an overhaul of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority - passed earlier in the day.

A proposal requiring agencies to verify applicants for public benefits are legal residents also passed yesterday, and is now headed to the governor’s desk. Similar legislation was delayed in the House last year because the cost of the measure was a little over a million dollars, but the cost of this year’s version was reduced to around $100,000.

Also, a proposal to allow Tennessee to join an interstate compact challenging the federal health care law failed in the House. The chamber voted 45-26 along partisan lines to approve the bill, but that was five votes short of the majority needed.  Bill sponsors say the proposal is intended to give Tennesseans more choices concerning health care if the compact were approved by Congress.