Rayna Taylor –
On February 26th, my fellow Press Corps members and I had the privilege of being invited to get exclusive one-on-one with this year’s Governor, Comfort Markwei. While I and photographer Emily Morgan conversed with Governor Markwei, our interview was soon cut short with news from White House Committee 1 Floor leader, Sally Gaither, alerting governor Markwei that White House Bill 22-1-10, presented by patrons Joshua Dullin and Jesse Ekong of Signal Mountain High school, in which the governor had already vetoed, could possibly be overturned within the house.
Cordell Hull Senate I was lively upon entrance as the delegates’ mixed opinions erupted within the room. I was able to talk with some of the delegates within the room among the chaos to get a clear first-hand opinion on what was occurring within the committee.
Delegate Lila Martin from Mount Juliet High School provided a summary of the situation:
“So basically, there is a bill (WHB 22-1-10) that the Senate passed unanimously. We had two votes against it here and I believe I was actually one of those. It was sent to the governor as it was passed, and she vetoed it. The decision came back and they (the patrons and fellow delegates in favor) were trying to overturn the veto through motions, wanting to debate the bill again.”
Delegate Martin added that she personally felt that attempting to debate again was a “waste of time,” as she believed there was very little chance of the overturn.
The Signal Mountain students’ bill was originally introduced as “An Act Incentivise the Opening of New Small Businesses,” an idea most of the committee had voted for originally, stating that they believed it would better the economy within the state. However, Governor Markwei and her cabinet were skeptical of logistics considering the annual budget. The bill would potentially require thirty million dollars, doing a dent on the state’s annual budget, another topic that had already raised mixed reactions among delegates before formally being announced.
Floor leader of Committee 2, Sally Gaither, added that this price may be unreasonable, as it would take away from small business owners in the long run; the thirty million would take a chunk out of grants offered to small businesses already.
The Governor’s cabinet entered committee 2 with a round of applause and sat as the motion to debate the bill was in order. Both pro and con speakers were quick to address the floor, with some delegates having changed their stance on the bill as a whole. Patron Ava Gordon of Independence High School, who had presented his bill just earlier, was one of the first con speakers to address the floor, urging failure as she stated the bill was not sustainable. In addition, her partner, Jackson Hayes stated:
“At first I was strongly for the bill because I’m a very pro-business person. but after hearing what Comfort (governor) had to say about the bill, I am now against it, because in the end, it takes away small businesses within Tennessee and favors big business,” adding their definition of small business was unclear and “skewed,” in his words:
“They had businesses that were doing several million dollars in net income within a year, which I do not consider small…” with Gordon adding:
“I also feel they withheld some key information for passage of the bill, and based on calculations that Govcab did, in which I trust more than that of delegates, I believe the bill is not sustained enough for the veto to be overturned.”
However, delegate and former candidate within the 2021 gubernatorial election, Collin Fischer, urged for an overturning of the veto as he stated “do not let anybody tell you, including the governor, choose to overturn your voice” as he felt this was ultimately Governor Markwei speaking over rather than for her people. While this ultimately empowered some of the committee’s decision, it led some to question Fischer’s intent, as they believed the governor’s state of the state address clearly showed her humanitarian approach within her role.
Within that session, the overturn was enacted, which only furthered tensions within Governer’s Cabinet and House committee 2. Meanwhile, the Press Corps and White Senate were hard at work.
We returned to the governor’s to get a full statement on the situation from Governor Markwei herself. She said,
“The bill itself will cost the state 300 million dollars, that’s 300 million dollars that I had to pull from the budget, 300 million dollars that we could have paid for education programs, infrastructure remodeling, that we now…”
Her chief of staff, Abigail Hopper interjected, “That we are potentially going to lose grants that they have from the state.[…] So, money that was originally allocated to them they won’t have because we don’t have another place to pull from.”
The cabinet members added their frustration towards the overturning as they stated there was originally no logical and fiscal evidence presented earlier for the amount of money to be generated, as the data presented within the committee and the White Senate was information unbeknownst to the Governor’s Cabinet.
I took a minute among the franticness to ask staff member Garrett Schnieder about the discussion, and he happily shared, “this is what makes me want to come back (as a student), to see the debates, this is how we learn about how to run democracy”.
Following the delegates’ return from lunch, gubernatorial candidate and speaker of the White Senate, Will Severn, was kind enough to tell us about the status of Bill 22-1-10, as it was his chamber that had originally passed the bill onto the governor’s cabinet (interview with Severn is available on the blog). In the interview, he clarified that the governor’s veto would overall stand, meaning the decision made by Govcab was final.
Department of Public Information 