Issues and Accomplishments

Issues

  • Roads and Infrastructure: Tennessee has a $1 billion surplus at the same time we have hundreds of millions of dollars in backlogged projects on our roads and bridges. We should work to draw down that backlog and address needs on our interstates, on our state and U.S. highways, and at key interchanges.
  • Schools: Tennessee has experimented on our children and teachers in harmful ways, leaving us with excessive testing at the expense of instructional time; turmoil from on-again, off-again state mandates; and schools badly in need of adequate funding. We must listen to our teachers, enhance local control, and adequately fund our schools.
  • Health Care: Tennessee has sent more than $2 billion to other states to provide health insurance for the lower income working families. Instead, that money could have gone to insure more than 330,000 Tennesseans under Governor Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal. It’s past time to take advantage of the Governor’s work and pass Insure Tennessee.
  • Local Economy: Nashville is thriving, giving our communities the opportunity to control the way they grow. However, state interference in local issues has cost us millions of dollars and affected our ability to control our future. We must let Nashville control Nashville and not relinquish that control to legislators from other parts of the state.

Accomplishments as a State Representative (Highlights)

  • Passage of increased penalties for domestic violence and child neglect
  • Passage of legislation eliminating statute of limitations for rape
  • Creation of nation’s first statewide animal abuse registry
  • Blocked efforts to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of funding from public schools
  • Passage of increased physical education, greater testing transparency, relevant teacher evaluations
  • Passage of Tennessee Promise college scholarship program
  • Passage of tuition assistance for military children
  • Passage of legislation allowing Goodlettsville to increase tourism through tax incentives
  • Increase tax exemptions for senior citizens
  • Reduced sales tax on food
  • 6,200 new jobs and $290 million in investment in Davidson County in two years
  • Lowest per-person debt in the country
  • Passage of behind-the-counter birth control sales without a prescription
  • Passage of bill allowing Nashville to make Ascend Amphitheatre smoke-free
  • Passage of legislation creating online voter registration
  • Passage of wine in grocery stores

Accomplishments as a Metro Councilman (Highlights)

  • Brought a new state-of-the-art library to Bellevue
  • Developed a financing plan that would allow redevelopment of the old Bellevue Mall property
  • Expanded green space, parks, and greenways in our community
  • Assisted neighbors devastated by the 2010 flood and obtained additional assistance for those still in need
  • Successfully fought efforts to place landfills within our communities
  • Worked to protect our neighborhoods and our community’s character