Congressman John Rose Issues Statement on Appropriations Bill

July 24, 2022
By: John Rose

Millions of Tennesseans are suffering significant, if not disastrous, hardships from the record-breaking inflation we are all experiencing. Inflation is the highest it’s been since 1981, and despite President Biden’s admonition to the contrary, it’s proving to be anything but temporary.

I have been outspoken on numerous occasions on the House Floor as to how we got to this point as a nation, and it’s hard to sugarcoat it. Quite simply, Congressional Democrats and President Biden have recklessly spent massive amounts of money that we obviously couldn’t afford, and in doing so, have flooded the economy with trillions of borrowed dollars, which lessened the value of each dollar and thus increased the number of dollars it takes to buy anything – including necessities like food, clothes and gasoline.

Now, here we are again, as House Democrats just passed yet another spending bill costing hundreds of billions of dollars and filled with socialist wish list items that increase federal spending by double and even triple digit percentage increases in some areas of the federal government.

I, of course, voted “No.” Not only because it increases the size of our government by increasing spending on non-defense programs by 14%, but because it also fails to include the Hyde Amendment, which is a long-standing bipartisan agreement that protects taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions.

Overall, the bill would increase the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency by 20%, increase the budget for general governmental activities by 17% and includes a 10% increase for the Food and Drug Administration—the same department that contributed to the hurtful and inexcusable baby formula shortage. Passing this bill full of liberal initiatives will only fan the flames of the already red-hot inflation Tennesseans are facing due to Democrats’ reckless spending.

This legislation also encourages illegal immigration, discourages increased domestic energy output by restricting offshore oil and gas activities and fails to fund our national defense priorities like the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile.

Borrowing more money from China, throwing it out the door, and forcing our grandchildren to pay it back only creates more problems, not solutions. We must return to our commonsense roots and end this inflationary spending now.

It’s been almost two years of complete Democratic control of government, and instead of addressing the root causes of the crises Democrats created, this bill doubles down on their failed socialist agenda. Tennesseans are fiscally responsible and always balance their state budgets, and there is absolutely no good reason why the federal government can’t do the same.

U.S. Rep. John Rose is currently serving his second term representing Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District and resides in Cookeville with his wife, Chelsea, and their two sons, Guy and Sam. The Sixth District includes Cannon, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Robertson, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, White and Wilson counties as well as portions of Cheatham and Van Buren counties. Representative Rose currently serves on the Financial Services Committee and is an eighth-generation farmer, small business owner and attorney.

July 23, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County closed out the 2021-22 fiscal year on a high note at least as far as collections of local option sales taxes is concerned.

According to the Tennessee Department of Revenue net collections for the month of June (DeKalb County and all four cities combined) were $641,626, the best month of the year (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022) and an increase from net collections of $559,225 a year ago in June, 2021.

June was also the best month of the fiscal year (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022) in terms of local option sales tax collections for the Cities of Smithville, Alexandria, and Liberty. June collections in Smithville were $397,647 compared to $350,327 in June, 2021.

Alexandria’s collections for June 2022 were $37,646 and up from $28,637 in June, 2021

June collections for Liberty stood at $13,849, up from $9,078 in June, 2021

Dowelltown’s collections for June were $2,930, down from $3,366 in June, 2021. The best month for Dowelltown during the fiscal year (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022) was January at $4,642.

DeKalb County’s local option sales tax collections, without the cities included, totaled $189,551 for the month of June, 2022, the third best month of the year (July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022), and up from $167,815 in June, 2021. The best two months of the year for the county were August, 2021 at $197,196 and July, 2021 at $194,418.

June sales tax collections reflect previous month activity.

July 23, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Jimmy Womack has been reappointed to a new four-year term on the DeKalb Utility District Board of Commissioners.

County Mayor Tim Stribling announced his appointment of Womack during Thursday night’s county commission committee meeting of the whole.

Womack is one of three members on the board who serves DeKalb County. Each term is for four years.

By law, the DUD board must submit the names of three nominees to fill each position, listed in order of preference. The list of nominees submitted included Womack, Jimmy Herndon, and Mack Harney in that order to the DeKalb County Mayor.

The general provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated (State Law) TCA § 7-82-307 provide that the utility board members must submit three nominees, listed in order of preference, to the county mayor (where the vacancy exists). The county mayor has the authority to appoint one of the nominees to the vacant position on the board or reject all of the nominees. If the county mayor rejects all three nominees, then the board of (utility) commissioners has to submit three additional nominees to the county mayor for consideration.

The DUD Board is made up of five members, three from DeKalb County (Jimmy Womack, Kerry Davis, and Hugh Washer), one from Cannon (Roger Turney), and one from Smith County (Danny Bass). The terms are staggered.

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