Tennessee legislators meet with constituents for lunch and forum

JACKSON, Tenn. — Tennessee legislators meet up and hear out constituent concerns.

“I’m very excited to talk with the mayors and other folks from our communities about the concerns they have with state government, and even some federal issues came into play, and figure out what we can do as legislators to help,” District 73 Rep. Chris Todd said.

“We have learned today that some of the issues that they have we didn’t know about, and there were several that were brought up that we didn’t know, but we’re going to find out and try to do whatever we need to do to try and help them out,” District 27 Sen. Ed Jackson said.

Legislators met with representatives from eight counties in the Southwest Tennessee Development District, who voiced some concerns about issues in their cities and counties.

One concern came from Decatur County, where emergency medical personnel are taking patients, some with TennCare, to hospitals outside the county.

“It costs a lot of money for them to do that. They’re only reimbursed just a small part of that,” Jackson said. “They would like for TennCare to at least reimburse what it costs so they can at least break even.”

McKenzie Mayor Jill Holland brought another financial concern.

In 2002, when the state sales tax increased, part of McKenzie’s revenue went to balancing the state’s budget.

“It never came back, and they’re still struggling on a very thin margin to make ends meet,” Jackson said.

“I think it behooves us to look at that and figure out if there’s some amount of money we can send back to the counties and the cities,” Todd said.

Several officials mentioned the cost of bringing their cities up to ADA compliance.

“That’s always a concern when our federal partners pass laws that require our local authorities to spend money, but yet they don’t fund those,” Todd said.

Other concerns discussed also include release of grant funds, and support of full funding to developmental districts.