NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Some Republican lawmakers still reveling in the recent defeat of a proposal to expand Medicaid coverage to 280,000 low-income Tennesseans are now setting their sights on 230,000 people enrolled through the federal health insurance exchange.
State Sen. Brian Kelsey’s latest proposal would ban Tennessee from creating a state-run exchange should the U.S. Supreme Court rule that the federal government can’t pay subsidies in states that declined to set up their own insurance markets. For many Americans, the subsidies make the insurance affordable.
“I’m hopeful the plaintiffs will be successful in this case and it will blow up Obamacare,” said Kelsey, R-Germantown.
Tennessee is among the 30 states - largely led by Republicans - that have declined to set up state-based systems and have exchanges run by the federal government instead. The bill represents an early effort to pre-empt efforts to cope with the fallout if the court rules the way many conservatives hope it will.
Oral arguments are scheduled for Wednesday, while the high court will likely take several weeks to release a decision.
Kelsey’s proposal is getting pushback from Republican leaders, including Gov. Bill Haslam and state Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Nashville government officials now say that funding for a proposed $100 million flood protection plan still has to be approved by the city council.
This week officials discovered that the council approved the funding with the wrong type of financing. As a result, the Metro Council will have to reapprove the plan so it is financed using municipal revenue bonds. Those bonds are repaid with water and sewer revenues from ratepayers.
The flood protection plan includes a 2,100-foot-long flood wall located on the city’s downtown waterfront. Part of that would include 1,200 feet of removable flood wall that could be assembled by 10 people in eight hours.
Nashville’s historic 2010 flood killed 10 people in Music City and caused $2 billion worth of damage in Davidson County.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee public television stations are airing a new show about the happenings in the state Legislature.
The first of four 30-minute episodes of the “Tennessee Capitol Report” are scheduled to air Sunday morning on public TV stations in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Lexington-Jackson and Cookeville. The next episodes are scheduled to air on March 29, April 26 and May 31.
The program is hosted Chip Hoback and produced by Tim Weeks. The first episode features interviews with Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell.
Topics include the failure of Gov. Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal and the winter weather that has wreaked havoc across the state.
Weeks says the aim of the program is to offer in-depth looks at the personalities shaping the issues at the Capitol.
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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - Business owners around Boone Lake worry they might be left high and dry this summer with the Tennessee Valley Authority’s sustained drawdown of the lake.
The Johnson City Press (https://bit.ly/1JVlAzahttps://bit.ly/1JVlAza ) is reporting that TVA has announced that water levels will remain low this summer while crews work to find the source of a leak under the earthen embankment that is part of the Boone Dam system. In a press conference Thursday, John McCormick, TVA vice president of safety, river management and environment, said the agency would likely sustain the Boone Reservoir waters lower for at least a year while it works to find and repair seepage around the hydroelectric dam.
That puts water levels roughly 30 feet below summer levels.
A fishing tournament and a speedboat race have already been canceled. One marina is developing an RV park and campsite to cope with the absence of boating.
The local economy will lose money with fewer opportunities for boating, said Gary Mabrey, CEO of the Johnson City/Washington County Chamber of Commerce.
“This will have a great deal of impact on the folks who come here to recreate and who have businesses out there,” Mabrey said. “When you take away an asset like that that’s not going to perform for the better part of the business year, I don’t know if you could quantify that.”
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