Legislative notebook: House panel kills minimum wage bill

Feb. 27--NASHVILLE -- Republicans on a House subcommittee Wednesday killed a Democrat-sponsored bill that would have established a Tennessee state minimum wage of $8.25 per hour for employees of companies that do not provide them with health care insurance.

House Democratic Chairman Mike Turner of Nashville, sponsor of the bill, said 41 other states have a state minimum wage -- 21 of them setting it at a level higher than the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Turner's bill (HB1694) would set a state minimum wage of $7.25, matching the federal rate and with a provision declaring that will increase in alignment with any future increase in the federal minimum wage. For companies that do not provide medical insurance, the state minimum would be $1 higher.

"This is the right thing to do and it's time we did it in Tennessee," he told the House Consumer and Human Resources Subcommittee. "We've done very little in this state to help people on the lower end of the wage scale."

None of the Republicans on the panel offered comments on the bill, other than subcommittee Chairman Jimmy Eldridge, R-Jackson, complimenting Turner on a "good presentation."

But all three Republicans present voted against the bill. A fourth was absent. The panel's two Democrats voted yes. The defeat effectively kills the measure for the year.

The "fiscal note" prepared by legislative staff on the bill says there are 247 part-time state employees who do no get health care insurance and would thus be covered by the bill, costing the state about $701,500 annually.

Ordering the attorney general: A Republican-sponsored bill declaring the Legislature can order the state attorney general to either file a lawsuit or dismiss one initiated on his own was approved on a 5-3 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

"The attorney general is the state's chief litigator, and he should be responsive to the people of Tennessee and their concerns," said Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, in a news release hailing the 5-3 committee vote in favor of SB2085. "This bill makes the office of attorney general more accountable to the people."

State Attorney General Bob Cooper declined two years ago to file a lawsuit challenging the federal Affordable Care Act despite being urged to do so by Republican lawmakers. Attorneys general in other states joined in such a lawsuit, which led to the U.S. Supreme Court upholding most of the federal law, but striking down a provision that said states must accept Medicaid expansion envisioned in the law as enacted.

Critics said the measure amounts to unwarranted legislative interference in the judicial branch of government and could mean substituting legislators' political judgment for the attorney general's professional legal judgment.

We are gathered here today ...: While members of a House committee have voted to grant current and former state legislators legal authority to perform marriage ceremonies, a majority of Senate Judiciary Committee members balked at the idea Wednesday.

The move came on a bill by Rep. Joe Armstrong, D-Knoxville, and Sen. Ken Yager, R-Harriman, that as filed granted former county clerks authority to perform marriages. In the House Civil Justice Committee, the measure was extended by amendment to provide marrying authority to current and former members of the General Assembly.

When the matter came up in Senate Judiciary, Yager professed himself neutral on the issue of legislator wedding.

Current law allows current and former speakers of the state House and Senate to perform marriages along with an array of other state and local officials -- but not rank-and-file legislators.

"If former county commissioners can (perform marriages), why not legislators?" asked Sen. Douglas Overbey, R-Maryville, at one point.

But when the vote came on the amendment, only three voted yes and four voted no. The bill was then approved by the committee 9-0 in its original form, applying only to former county clerks.

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