New laws on sentencing, taxes taking effect Friday

JACKSON, Tenn. — Friday, July 1 marks not only a new fiscal year, but also the start date of many new laws that will go into effect in Tennessee.

There are over 15 categories of new laws, a lengthy one being criminal sentencing/public safety.

“We did increase criminal penalties for drive-by shootings for several things and several criminal behaviors to try to prevent the victimizations of so many of our constituents,” said Rep. Chris Todd.

According to tngopsenate.com, the new law requires that a person convicted of aggravated assault involving the use or display of a deadly weapon have a more stringent punishment.

Todd says the most significant of the new laws taking effect are the amount of tax cuts, one of those being removing state license plate registration fees beginning July 1 until June 30, 2023.

“It is for personal vehicles or motorcycles, and it removes the state portion of the registration fee: $23.75. And that will be for a full year, so if someone has a registration in June, they need to go ahead and renew. But next year in June when they renew, they will get that break,” Todd said.

Another law taking effect is expanding human trafficking training in schools. Todd says cases have been getting worse across the state.

All school employees will be properly trained to know how to detect a possible human trafficking case.

“We’re wanting them to have the proper training so that they can be alert and know exactly what to look for and then alert authorities if they suspect there may be some human trafficking involving some of the students that they have in their care,” Todd said.

There’s also a new law to come that will expand the benefits for firefighters injured in the line of duty.

Currently, firefighters are eligible for workers compensation for only some cancers, but the new law will expand that to include leukemia and testicular cancer.

“Firefighters specifically face a lot of dangers when they’re fighting fires with the things that they can breathe, and so we’ve expanded some of the benefits they can get for certain illnesses they get so that we are taking care of those that are first and foremost taking care of us,” Todd said.

You can find more news from across the state here.