Committee advances six bills, rolls one; higher education hearings follow

The Finance, Ways and Means Committee met March 18, 2025, and forwarded six bills to Calendar and Rules, rolled one bill for a week and completed those votes before beginning higher education budget hearings.

The committee took up seven calendar items. Most votes were unanimous or near-unanimous; recorded tallies were read aloud by the clerk after each roll call. The committee then convened the higher education budget presentations from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), the University of Tennessee system and the six locally governed institutions (LGIs).

Votes at a glance

- House Bill 4 21 (Speaker Pro Tempore Marsh): Changes continuing-education requirements for utility board members, reducing a second-cycle requirement from 12 hours to 6 hours and adding a path to reinstatement for commissioners removed for noncompliance. Vote: 22 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: moved to Calendar and Rules.

- House Bill 125 (Chairman Haston): Lowers the local match requirement for parks and recreation grants in at-risk and distressed counties (description given by chairman). Vote: 22 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: moved to Calendar and Rules.

- House Bill 117: Rolled one week by unanimous consent; no roll-call vote recorded on March 18.

- House Bill 824 (Representative Freeman): Extends the event marketing fund that devotes a portion of hotel-motel tax receipts to recruit and market major events. Representative Freeman said the fund helps recruit events such as the Music City Bowl and CMA Fest; the bill extends the sunset to FY 3132. Vote: 17 ayes, 0 noes, 3 present not voting. Outcome: moved to Calendar and Rules.

- House Bill 1329 (Representative Garrett): Lowers the state collection fee from 1.125% to 0.75%, a change the sponsor said would return nearly $19,000,000 to local governments. Vote: 21 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: moved to Calendar and Rules.

- House Bill 1337 (Representative Garrett): Extends a short filing window for charitable organizations that missed raffle registration deadlines, reopening a five-day period after gubernatorial signature to allow them to hold fundraisers. Vote: 21 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: moved to Calendar and Rules.

- House Bill 635 (Chairman Williams), as amended (amendment drafting code 3,883): Alters treatment of tax credits so taxpayers may elect to increase Tennessee excise tax liability to utilize otherwise unused credits; committee adopted the amendment by voice vote and then approved the bill on roll call. Vote on final bill: 23 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: moved to Calendar and Rules.

Context and next steps

Committee members briefly described each bill and opened the floor to questions; most items drew limited discussion. After the votes the panel recessed the bill calendar and heard budget and policy presentations from higher education agencies and institutions. Those presentations included requests for recurring funds for programs such as Advise TN, large capital-maintenance asks, and operating support for a recently acquired campus (UT Southern). Several presenters also flagged concerns about federal grant suspensions affecting land-grant activities and lottery revenue projections for scholarship programs.

The committee recessed the business portion of the agenda and began higher education hearings; chairman remarks noted the hearing schedule would continue the next morning in House Hearing Room 3 at 8 a.m. without further committee business recorded.

Ending

All items that passed on March 18 were forwarded to Calendar and Rules as indicated; the committee did not adopt any substantive amendments other than those noted for House Bill 635. Additional hearings and follow-up were scheduled during the higher education budget reviews that followed the votes.