Published: February 11, 2008 01:44 pm      

State lawmakers weigh in on local, national issues at Legislative Breakfast

State legislators Eric Swafford and Charlotte Burks along with Fourth District U.S. Congressman Lincoln Davis spoke to a full house at the Legislative Breakfast organized by the Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Progressive Savings Bank.

During the program, the legislators addressed a number of issues facing the local community, the state of Tennessee and the country.

Local concerns addressed included the status of several road projects by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), including the long-awaited Lantana Road widening.

State Representative Eric Swafford started out by thanking Congressman Davis for his help in securing a $6.4 million federal earmark to help pay for the Lantana project, a fact that Swafford said would help “dramatically” with the funding on the project. Swafford explained that the right-of-way process for the Lantana Road improvement is well under way and all the studies have been done. He said the next step is the purchase of the needed land.

Swafford also said that plans for the Peavine Road bridge across I-40 was moving forward as well. State Senator Charlotte Burks said she had recently been told that the bid would be let on the bridge project in March of this year so the project was moving forward quickly. Burks added that work on both 127 N and 127 S were also progressing, but as is often the case, the projects take a longer than officials or the public would like to get finished.

According to Burks, TDOT officials also told her that construction could start on the Lantana Road project in late 2009 or early 2010.

Both Swafford and Burks said they felt the state was in excellent financial shape, even though the revenues for the current year were lower then originally estimated. Burks said the state had more in its rainy day fund that it has for 15 years. Swafford added that Tennessee was in better financial shape than many other areas and he is pleased with Governor Bredesen's proposed budget.

Both state lawmakers discussed proposals for the use of excess lottery funds. Since there are only certain uses for the money based on the original lottery referendum, Burks said she agreed with Bredesen's proposal to allow students that make a lower GPA to maintain their scholarship funding. According to Burks, some 80 percent of students lose their scholarship after the first year of college. The proposal would allow students with a 2.75 GPA to keep their scholarship where currently they must maintain a 3.00 GPA.

Burks said that the changes in high school requirements recently approved by the Tennessee Board of Education would go a long way in correcting the problem of students going to college but not having adequate skills to be successful.

While Swafford said he was concerned about the number of students losing scholarships, he felt that “access does not equal success.” Swafford explained that he would like to see the excess funds used to help schools construct new buildings for more capacity, something that he felt could help the Cumberland County school system.

Congressman Davis addressed questions concerning the national debt and concerns about the economy. He said, “We have to change the way we do business.”

Davis said that at the rate the U.S. was going, they could easily end up being asked to defend Taiwan from China using money borrowed from China and equipment purchased from China.

Davis said part of the change was a need for those in Washington who “put America first and party second.” Davis said the so-called “Blue Dog” caucus he belongs to wanted to look at the previous tax cuts adding that with the current deficit, he felt there were only two choices, “cut spending or revenue enhancements.”

“The United States has borrowed more money in the last decade,” according to Davis, “than in the history of the country.”

“How to fix the problem?” Davis asked rhetorically. “If I know that, there would be no questions who would be elected president this fall, I would!” Davis quipped.