GOP leaders hold secret weekend budget negotiations

The Tennessean’s Natalie Allison made the trek into the legislative office complex over the weekend to check up on budget negations between Republican leaders in the House and Senate. Once she showed up, the meeting was abruptly adjourned.

I came in to #tnleg on a Sunday to sit in on the House and Senate's budget deliberation, a meeting they intended to be closed door. Moments after walking in, they take a "recess," the two majority leaders come back in, and it's announced that the meeting is over.

— Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) April 28, 2019

Secret meetings are nothing new at the General Assembly, which has exempted itself from the state’s open meetings laws. But that doesn’t make it look any better for leadership to hammer out details of the state’s annual spending plan behind closed doors.