BILLS ON MOVE IN LEGISLATURE

SOME IN, SOME OUT

As March moves into April, bills are being dispensed with in the Tennessee General Assembly.

Over the past week:

› The Senate passed a joint resolution to ban a state property tax, joining the House which had passed the legislation earlier. The current tax is 0%, which it has been since 1949. It is the first step in enshrining the ban in the state Constitution. The measure will need to be passed by two-thirds margins in both houses of the legislature next year and approved in a statewide referendum in 2026.

› The Senate passed a so-called “red flag bill” 30-0, and since the House had earlier passed the measure 79-7, it goes to Gov. Bill Lee for his signature. The law expands the necessity for mental health professionals to report potential violence by patients related to a school or a family member of the patient. It is supported by both the Tennessee Psychological Association and a group of parents from Nashville’s Covenant School, where a woman with mental health issues killed six people a year ago.

› The Senate Judiciary Committee effectively killed a bill giving victims a right to sue those who enter a bathroom that does not match their biological gender by sending the legislation to summer study. All seven members of the committee — seven Republicans and two Democrats — agreed on the motion. Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, said the bill needs to the tightened up because, as written, it would have someone breaking the law by simply using a singleperson bathroom for the opposite sex.

› Similarly, a bill prohibiting people from transporting illegal immigrants into the state failed in the same Senate committee because, according to Roberts, its language was not “exact.” He said he agreed with the idea of the bill but believed it needed a more exact definition of illegal alien. The legislation also would have increased the penalty for transporting such people from $1,000 to $5,000.

THE GRASS IS GREENER

Is it the cost of watering? The soil? The hills and mountains?

Whatever the reason, a recent study has tabbed Chattanooga as the 10th most expensive metro area in the country for lawn maintenance.

The study shows the area fourth in the country for lawn care costs, sixth in portion of household income spent on professional lawn and gardening services, 16th in yard size, 71st in average monthly mowing frequency per lawn (March-October) and 85th in lawn irrigation cost.

The expenses in the Chattanooga metro area, according to Lawn Love, are well above those in Nashville (27th in the country), Knoxville (34th) and Memphis (72nd).

The most expensive metro areas on the list are Sacramento/Roseville/Folsom, California; Visalia, California; Bakersfield, California (tops in lawn irrigation cost); Houston/The Woodlands/Sugar Land, Texas (tops in lawn care cost); and LaFayette, Louisiana. The Asheville, North Carolina, metro area, according to the survey, has the biggest lawns.

GEN Z AT RISK

Where it comes to Generation Z drivers, Tennessee has the ninth highest fatality rate in the country, according to a study by personal injury attorneys John Foy & Associates.

The study shows the state has a rate of 27.38 deaths per 100,000 people among drivers born from 1997 to 2013. The state lost 400 Gen Z drivers from 2017 to 2021.

Sadly, the South dominates the top 10.

Montana tops the list, followed by Mississippi, Wyoming, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri. Following Tennessee, in 10th, is New Mexico.

New York has the lowest fatality rate at 6.59 deaths per 100,000 population.

DONNING THE SWEATPANTS

Do you work from home? If not, are you trying to line up a job where you can?

Tennessee, according to research conducted by digital mailbox provider iPostal1, has the seventh most people, per capita, searching for remote jobs.

Maybe it’s something about the South. The top five — Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina and Texas — and five of the six states ahead of the Volunteer State are in the South.

Tennessee, in an average month, has an average of

703 searches per 100,000 people. The searches included such key terms as “remote jobs near me” and “part-time work from home jobs.”

“In 2024,” according to Jeff Milgram, CEO and founder of iPostal1, “approximately 16% of all businesses operate remotely in the U.S. … One of the reasons for this trend may be the cost-of-living squeeze and consequential rising inflation rates. However, it’s possible that the professional landscape would have transformed similarly after the pandemic, regardless of America’s economic landscape.”