Votes at a glance: State Funding Board approves bond, policy and loan items on June 23, 2025

The Tennessee State Funding Board on June 23 approved a series of resolutions, updates and administrative items by voice vote. The meeting record shows motions, seconds and unanimous "aye" voice votes for each item; the transcript does not include roll-call tallies.

Key approvals and actions recorded in the meeting materials and approved by the board:

• Cancellation of authorized bonds for the University of Memphis: The board approved a resolution canceling $154,564 of authorized bonds related to a University of Memphis property purchase that had been funded through the state's commercial paper program. Sandy Thompson described that the university has repaid the borrowing and the cancellation is effective June 23, 2025.

• Certification of special revenues (TCA 9-9-104(b)): The board approved a resolution certifying that special tax revenues pledged for debt service meet the statutory requirements: all payments due under statute have been made, the state is not in default of outstanding debt, and pledged fees and taxes are expected to be sufficient for the upcoming fiscal year. Sandy Thompson presented the item and the materials in the board packet included a memo from the commissioner of finance and administration.

• Acceptance/reciprocal affirmation regarding TCRS standby commercial paper purchase agreement: The board accepted a letter from the chief investment officer of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) affirming TCRS does not plan to terminate its standby purchaser contract prior to July 1, 2026, and authorized the comptroller to send a reciprocal letter affirming the board’s intent not to terminate the contract prior to that date.

• Budget manual update for local governments: The board approved updates to the Comptroller's budget manual to add an online budget submission process, examples of conditional budget approvals and new financial health metrics for utilities and for cities that do not levy property tax.

• Debt manual and guideline updates to implement public chapters: The board approved updates to the debt manual to reflect changes required to implement public chapter 17 and public chapter 218, including authorizing emergency utility cash-flow revenue anticipation notes, procedures for heightened-risk debt approvals and a requirement that certain defaults, covenant violations and credit-rating downgrades be reported. The board also approved removal of a previously issued blanket waiver (the Anti Kicking the Can Act waiver) effective July 1, 2025, because public chapter 17 implements the needed statutory changes.

• FEMA notes for disaster cleanup: The Division of Local Government Finance recommended, and the board approved, two FEMA interfund loans: McNairy County received a $500,000 highway-fund interfund loan for tornado cleanup and the Town of Erwin received a $3,000,000 loan for flood cleanup. Both notes have a stated maturity of June 30, 2027.

• Debt management policy review: The board approved the annual review of the State Funding Board’s debt management policy; staff reported only non-substantive changes.

• Revised declaration of trust for OPEB — West Knox Utility District: The board approved a revised OPEB declaration of trust that replaces named trustees with position titles to reflect personnel changes; the Attorney General’s office reviewed the revisions.

• Approval of minutes from the May 19, 2025 meeting and adjournment were also recorded as approved by voice vote.

The transcript records voice approvals for these items; where the record lacks a roll-call, the articles note that votes were by voice and that no roll-call tallies are included in the transcript.