January 25, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
State Senator Mark Pody paid a call on the county commission Thursday night.
The purpose of his visit was to hear from the commissioners on questions or concerns they have as the Tennessee General Assembly begins a new session.
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“I want to work with you. If there are private acts or things you want us to fight for I want to hear about it now. I also want to come back when we’re done to answer questions. I want to talk to you in person to explain why we did what we did good or bad. We want to hear it,” he said.
After handing the commissioners a statement showing what the state is spending and how much is coming back to the counties, Senator Pody talked about Governor Bill Lee’s first executive order focusing on addressing the needs of rural Tennessee.
“One of the governor’s priorities and that of the legislature is to get the things we need for our rural communities whether it be broadband, infrastructure, jobs, and economic growth. We also want to make sure schools have what they need here. That is going to be one of the priorities the governor plans to put forth and we try to back up to make sure we get things we need here for the county,” said Senator Pody.
“What specifically is in the executive order? Does it mean giving counties more money to take care of schools?” asked seventh district commissioner Bruce Malone.
“Yes. What the governor specifically wants to do is help the CTE program. The career and technical training. We have been focusing on trying to get people to go into college. The governor believes we should get more money into our high schools for specific training so if students go into trades the schools would have money to train them?” answered Pody.
“Does that include money for capital projects?” asked Malone.
“No. It would be for classes,” said Pody.
“What about teacher salaries and benefits?” asked Malone.
“Yes. I believe Tennessee has already increased teachers pay more as a percentage than anywhere in the nation. We have tried to put more money into teacher salaries in the last six years and this governor wants to do the same thing. The last time we did it we wanted every teacher to have almost a one thousand dollar raise. We gave it to the school boards but it was up to them to divide it out and make those decisions. I don’t remember how many millions of dollars it was but we voted on it to put that extra money toward teacher raises in the last budget. We put that money to the local school boards but we don’t want to tell the school boards how to spend it. We said here is the money and this is what we would like to see but the school boards make those decisions,” Pody explained.