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.
7 Responses to GOP leaders hold secret weekend budget negotiations
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Tennessee Taliban strikes again. Sine Die !!!!!
Sadly, they are actually a time-honored tradition. Although back in the days of McWherter, reporters were on occasion allowed to attend on an off-the-record basis. Reporters would thus have the “script” for the public meeting and know which amendments were supposed to get killed and by whom. Because the R and D leadership actually had a working relationship, the Rs would kill D amendments and Ds would kill R amendments. That made covering the public meeting sort of like being a theater critic. You waited to see who would forget their lines and send the whole thing off the tracks.
Nothing to see here folks, move along…..no doubt it’s all above board and in the service of the citizenry (those who have to obey the laws the legislature exempts itself from of course).
For ANYONE who considers the linking those in the TN Legislature with the Taliban … There is 1 -WAY bus ticket with your name it !! Just name your destination! How about Seattle? San Fran? or LA ? They sound like your kind of places ! … Shame on you !
The Tennessee Legislature ACT like the Taliban, their way or the highway.
Like it or not, the Tennessee Constitution actually contains wording that allows the legislature to have closed meetings. So even if the Open Meetings Act had not exempted them, the state constitution does.
I don’t know what’s sadder: the secret meeting or the fact that this story broke in the TNJ, not in The Tennessean. Even now, 24 hours after Allison first tweeted what happened, there’s still no story on The Tennessean website.