Appropriations subcommittee adopts dozens of amendments, adds recurring funding for Fallen Firefighters memorial

The Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee appropriations subcommittee met and voted to adopt dozens of budget amendments, approving grants, earmarks and program language affecting local projects, state grants and agency funding. Senator Watson moved to reconsider one previously acted item and the panel approved adding a recurring appropriation for the Tennessee Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Bell Buckle.

The meeting consisted largely of roll-call treatment of numbered amendments and committee alterations. Most items were adopted after a motion and second with members voting “aye.” Several items were included in the committee's amendment (AA) and were reported as funded without separate roll calls. Where a motion lacked a second, the amendment died for lack of a second and was not adopted.

Why it matters: The subcommittee's approvals send funding priorities and specific local projects forward in the budget process, including new grant pools for emergency services, parks and cultural institutions and sizable institutional projects. Several items change recurring program funding or create new recurring positions and programs that will affect operating budgets going forward.

Votes at a glance (selected, committee record contains additional items):

- Senate Amendment 2 — Town of Bean Station sewer project: $1,500,000 (earmark). Adopted.

- Senate Amendment 3 — Town of Bulls Gap: $450,000 (earmark). Adopted.

- Amendment 11 — Special Olympics of Tennessee: $250,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 15 — Middle Tennessee State University scholarships (joint public-private partnership): $1,400,000 (recurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 20 — Jefferson County Sheriff's Office grant: $400,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 22 — City of Kingsport local match for TDOT grant: $500,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 37 — Bledsoe County water lines: $1,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 41 — Lane College comprehensive wellness program: $150,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 49 — Pediatric dental rate increase to TennCare: $4,000,000 (recurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 50 — Mel Malone Family Foundation (finance administration): $250,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 52 — Sevier County waterline extension: $2,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 54 — Claiborne Heritage Center, Graham Kibbit House restoration (Historic Property Land Acquisition Fund): $750,000 (earmark). Adopted.

- Amendment 70 — Department of Agriculture, regional agricultural affairs: $1,500,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 77 — Johnson City Railroad experience (museum grant pool): $50,000. Adopted.

- Amendment 99 — Construction of a turn lane (Te... Plains): $131,350 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 100 — Epilepsy Foundation of East Tennessee (caregiver support): $500,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 108 — County innovation center vocational training within school system: $500,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 110 — Erwin Utilities Authority, local match for disaster relief to replace wastewater treatment plant (Release and Relief and Recovery Fund): $20,000,000 (earmark). Adopted.

- Amendment 133 — City of Milan, land purchase for industrial park (ECD Fast Track Funds): $6,800,000 (earmark). Adopted.

- Amendment 147 — Interfaith Health Clinic Inc., renovation and equipment: $500,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 157 — iJAMS Nature Center, accessibility improvements: $50,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted.

- Amendment 162 — University of Memphis campus safety and security (Victim Crime Intervention Fund): $5,400,000 (earmark). Adopted.

- Amendment 166 — City of Oak Ridge body-worn cameras (Victim Crime Intervention Fund): $2,500,000 (earmark). Adopted.

- Amendments in the Senate Finance Committee package: - Tourist development grants to four institutions (Nashville Zoo, Knoxville Zoo, Chattanooga Zoo, Tennessee Aquarium) for capital projects: $4,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - Grant pool for volunteer fire departments: $20,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - Grant pool for rescue squads: $5,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - Grant pool for emergency medical services: $5,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - Grant pool for senior citizen centers: $5,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - Museum capital improvements (grant pool): $5,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - Courthouse restoration grant pool: $2,000,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - DHS support to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee: $500,000 (nonrecurring). Adopted. - West Tennessee River Basin Authority flood preparedness (Duck River Regionalization Fund): $1,200,000 (earmark). Adopted. - Northeast Tennessee disaster relief (Hurricane Helene) from Relief and Recovery Fund: $25,000,000 (earmark). Adopted. - Department of Health replacement of lost CDC funding to county health departments (from shared savings): $4,000,000. Adopted.

- Higher-education and institutional items adopted included $10.3 million for UT Health Science Center equipment replacement, funding to advance planning for a new medicine building at UT, and a $37.5 million earmark for a TCAT Nashville replacement campus (Board of Regents). Adopted.

- Criminal-justice, public-safety and programmatic items adopted included: creation of positions or program funding for the attorney general's special litigation program ($4.5 million recurring), mental-health evaluator process funding ($519,400 recurring), child advocacy and forensic interviewer contracts ($4,258,500 recurring), veterans treatment court funding for Montgomery County ($116,100 recurring), and a package of statutory and policy changes (including mandatory minimum adjustments, expanded definitions and election-related funding). Adopted where motions carried.

Reconsideration and clarified recurring item

Senator Watson asked the panel to reconsider its prior action on amendment 47. "We believe this is already recurring, but to be sure, we're gonna go ahead and put this in this amendment on," Watson said, and moved adoption on reconsideration. The subcommittee approved adding recurring language and adopted amendment 47, which provides recurring funding to the Tennessee Fallen Firefighters Memorial, Inc., for care and maintenance of the memorial in Bell Buckle.

Procedure and next steps

Many amendments were added into the committee's omnibus amendment (AA) and reported as included; items that lacked a second died and were not adopted. The subcommittee concluded its work after the roll-call treatment and will forward its approved package to the next stage in the budget process. The committee record contains the full item-by-item roll call and line-item language for each adopted amendment.