Finance, Ways and Means committee advances 16 bills to calendar and rules, postpones six

The Tennessee House Finance, Ways and Means Committee voted on a slate of bills during its April 2025 meeting, advancing 16 measures to the calendar and rules committee and postponing or rolling six other items, Chairman Crawford said.

The package included policy and administrative bills across education, transportation, public safety and health finance. Key items advanced included a bill to permit local school boards discretion to use future state funding for merit pay; removal of a $350 bond for civil asset forfeiture recovery; changes to the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act; several annual health- and facility-assessment bills; and transportation omnibus bills to name license plates and roads or bridges.

Speaker Pro Tem Marsh described House Bill 759 as a change to the state'board of education strategic compensation policy that "allows any future state funding to be used in a merit pay structure at the discretion of the local school board," removing current state-set parameters and leaving those details to local boards. The committee approved HB 759 by voice and recorded vote; the clerk reported 27 ayes and 0 nos.

Chairman Howe described the transportation omnibus bills (including House Bills 212 and 213) as the annual packages that include naming of specialty license plates and naming roads and bridges. HB 212 passed on a recorded vote of 26 ayes, 0 nos after an amendment was adopted; HB 213…