2024 TCSA Legislative Conference Recap

TCSA had a wonderful time at the conference in Gatlinburg last week, and we hope all of our members did, too. With many exciting adventures, including various encounters with bears and multiple informative sessions on great topics, we hope you gained knowledge to take home to your counties to implement. Our conference was enriched by the presence of speakers who shared their insights on county-related issues. 

In Tuesday’s general session, Tennessee State Treasurer David Lillard, and the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System Director (TCRS) Jamie Wayman updated the TCSA membership on the standing of Tennessee's retirement system, recent legislative changes that impact retirement and county employee benefits and other programs administered by the Treasurer’s office. 

 During that same general session, attendees also heard from UT AG Extension Specialist Megan Bruch Leffew on trends in agritourism in Tennessee and how that can make farms more profitable and strengthen a county’s economy. Following the general session, TCSA Director David Connor met with the Education Committee to review major pieces of legislation that were considered this year regarding K-12 education. He also discussed improvements to the TISA education funding formula and teacher compensation requirements.

Wednesday Sessions Were Full of Valuable Information for Counties

Wednesday offered county officials more learning opportunities. The morning began with breakout sessions on affordable housing and development tools for county governments, how to communicate like a pro, and how to prepare for retirement as a county official. Each session was designed to equip our officials to better themselves and serve in their respective roles in county government. Over both Tuesday and Wednesday, highway officials had sessions where they heard from and interacted with various staff of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. They also had an extended training session with CTAS field staff on how to avoid and correct audit issues for highway departments.

A highlight of the 2024 Legislative Conference was the legislative recap. This review from TCSA, alongside ACM, TCCA, and TCHOA, covered an array of legislation considered during the 113th Tennessee General Assembly during this past session. The session covered both legislation that did pass as well as bills that were defeated. 

As mentioned during the conference, this session was a challenging one for county government with multiple serious threats to the viability of county government. These included proposals to limit the taxing authority of local government, enact universal private school vouchers, preempt local authority and erode the county tax base. While most major threats were averted, all the directors agreed that TCSA would not have been able to accomplish what it did without the involvement and engagement of our members.

Following the legislative update, we heard another legislative update from the Tennessee Comptroller's office and then their presentation of the clean audit awards. Comptroller Mumpower was unable to attend this year, so he sent along a recorded video presentation. Congratulations to Campbell, Cannon, Cumberland, Loudon, McMinn, Robertson, Sevier, Stewart, and Union counties on their FY 2023 clean audits. 

Thursday Morning Membership Breakfast Highlights

Lastly, at the Thursday morning general session, we heard from NACo executive director Matt Chase and Tennessee’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Charlie Hatcher. Matt Chase gave an overview of national trends and federal issues affecting counties, discussed the importance of county government’s relations with the federal arm of government, and shared information about NACo’s numerous programs to assist counties. Finally, Dr. Charlie Hatcher discussed trends regarding the loss of high quality farmland in Tennessee and how the state and local government need to collaborate to promote smarter growth in our state in order to preserve natural resources for our largest industry.

Again, thank you all for attending the TCSA Legislative Conference. We hope you gained a lot of insight from our speakers and gathered information that helps you be more effective as an official in your county. We look forward to seeing you soon.

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