Nashville, Tenn.–Two bills filed by Representative Bruce Griffey, R-Paris, to increase economic development funding to Tennessee rural counties are set to be heard this week before the House Finance Ways & Means Subcommittee.
House Bill 2703 was filed by Griffey last month and calls for the establishment of a Tennessee Rural Economic Development Fund into which 10% of any excess state tax revenues collected over budget would be placed. The money would then be distributed to counties designated as “rural” by the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development.
Griffey said, “For the 2018-2019 fiscal year, Tennessee had a budget surplus as a result of the collection of excess taxes in the amount of $636.1 M. Applying the 2018-2019 fiscal year numbers to my legislation would mean that $63.6 M would have been placed into a Rural Economic Development Fund specifically for the benefit of rural TN counties, which includes all of the counties in my district – Benton, Henry and Stewart Counties – and all counties in West Tennessee apart from Shelby and Madison Counties.”.
He continued, “Despite a number of bills this legislative session proposing to decrease taxes in various forms, I don’t see the trend of excess tax revenues stopping. In August, TN had surplus budget revenue of $28.8 M. In September, TN collected a surplus of $138.8 M. In October, TN collected a $49.8 M surplus. In November, a $78.4 Million surplus was collected. In December, TN collected a $55.3 Million surplus, and, in January, the surplus was $129.4 Million.“
For far too long, the rural counties have been overlooked by the Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commission in my opinion, he said. “This is why areas such as Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga are booming. They don’t need any further development at this juncture inasmuch as they are already dealing with infrastructure problems created by growth. The rural areas, however, need development in order to provide more and better jobs and wages to their community members. I believe that my Rural Economic Opportunity Fund bill would be a great start to solving this problem.”
Griffey’s other bill to fuel rural economic development is House Bill 1586, which was filed back in January and is set for hearing tomorrow as well. Under Griffey’s proposed House Bill 1586, the Department of Economic and Community Development would be required to develop a written plan by February 1, 2021 to ensure that two-thirds (2/3s) of all money they distribute are used for economic development in TN rural counties as measured on a per county basis for a 4 year period beginning July 1, 2021 and continuing until July 1, 2025.
“On average, urban counties in TN receive 3 times the amount of economic and community development dollars from the state as rural counties on a per county basis. For example, over roughly the last 4 years, urban counties received $15.75 million on average per county and rural counties only received $5.59 million on average per county. I want to flip the allocation of ECD dollars so more businesses are encouraged and motivated to move to rural areas in Tennessee,” explained Griffey.
“To illustrate the importance of this bill, District 75 – my district consisting of the 3 rural counties of Benton, Henry and Stewart – collectively received from the state $7.7 million over the last 4 years for economic and community development while Shelby County (a single urban county) received over $70 million dollars. Another example is that Stewart County as an individual rural county only received $564,397 over the last 4 years while, by comparison, Davidson County as an individual urban county received over $64 million – over 113 times the amount of money Stewart County received. This allocation by the state is simply unfair and has resulted in metro areas such as Nashville booming and rural areas declining and hurting. The infrastructure of Nashville cannot handle continued exponential growth and a solution to the issue that benefits TN as a whole is to redirect economic and industrial development away from the metro areas to the rural areas, and, start by doing so through a reallocation of ECD dollars,” said Griffey.
“If every legislator whose district includes a rural county supported and voted in favor of this bill, this bill has a chance of passing. However, it will require legislators in rural areas of TN to stick together,” Griffey concluded.