Senate passes 42-cent cigarette tax hike targeted at schools

By John Rodgers, NashvilleCityPaper.com
June 01, 2007

On the strength of lockstep Democratic support, the state Senate passed a 42-cent per pack cigarette tax increase Thursday on a 17-16 party-line vote, more than tripling the state’s current levy to partly fund Gov. Phil Bredesen’s education plan.

The House, waylaid over a separate school debate, delayed a cigarette tax vote until Monday after a marathon session.

Meanwhile Thursday, that $500 million education plan that Bredesen proposed received final approval from both the state House and Senate. Also, a related bill to hold schools more accountable to try and produce quality students was also passed.

The hiked cigarette tax, which the Senate increased from 20 cents per pack to 62 cents, has been earmarked to fund part of those education changes.

All 16 Democrats in the Senate voted in favor of the 42-cent hike and were joined by the Senate’s lone independent, Sen. Mike Williams (I-Maynardville), to outvote the body’s Republicans, who also stood together, 17-16 to increase the tax.

“I think it does a lot for education,” said Sen. Joe Haynes (D-Goodlettsville), adding he expected it to be a party-line vote.

Republicans pointed to the state’s record tax revenues, which are at least more than $500 million, as justification to not support a 40-cent cigarette tax increase.

Some Republicans could support a 20-cent increase, and said the state had plenty of money to fund the education changes without a tax increase.

“The arguments made in support of a 40-cent cigarette tax do not have anything to do with the majority of the improvements we want to make in this state,” said Sen. Paul Stanley (R-Germantown). “It’s just the ability to get more money while the getting’s there.”

About $150 million of the more than $220 million raised through the tax hike would go toward funding part of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s $500 million K-12 education funding overhaul.

Bredesen had proposed a 40-cent cigarette tax increase. He got that much, and he got more when Sen. Rosalind Kurita (D-Clarksville) was successful in adding two cents to help the state’s trauma centers.

Bredesen’s plan would make major changes to the state’s Basic Education Program (BEP), which is the state’s funding formula for K-12 education. Bredesen calls his plan “BEP 2.0.”

Of the roughly $500 million education package, Metro schools would receive about $28 million when the plan is fully funded, which won’t happen this year.

“This is an opportunity to actually do something good, to move us up a little bit higher in the rankings in the nation in education,” said Rep. Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory).

Bredesen’s education changes passed the House on an 84-11 vote and the Senate 32-1.

The education changes include increasing the state’s share of teacher funding from 65 percent to ultimately 75 percent, full state funding for educating low income children, hiring more teachers to teach students who don’t speak English as their first language, and instituting a more transparent formula to determine how much state funding a local school district would receive.

To make all of those changes and invest more than $500 million in the education overhaul, lawmakers and Bredesen wanted greater school accountability to try and get a return on the state’s investment in education.

The two bodies passed a separate accountability bill 33-0 in the Senate and 52-44 in the House on a party-line vote that Democrats carried.

The party’s disagreed about whether to use $100 million in lottery surplus funds for school districts capital projects. The issue caused numerous caucus meetings, all of which the House Republicans closed to the media.

The bill instituting the stronger accountability changes gave more authority to school principals over the school’s budget and its staff. Principals could also receive higher pay if performance standards are met or face consequences if they are not achieved.

It also allowed for “differential pay,” which essentially is to grant incentives to teachers to go to teach at certain “hard to staff” schools and to pay teachers more to teach subjects where instructors are in short supply, such as math, science and foreign languages.

In addition, teachers would be assessed at least once every two years. Currently, they are evaluated, which is more stringent than an assessment, twice every 10 years.