[Editor’s note: This story published on Jan. 17, 2019, in our print edition but was delayed in being posted online due to technical issues.]
The four Republican candidates for the Tennessee State Senate’s District 32 put their cards on the table in Bartlett Monday night, Jan. 14, about balancing the needs of urban vs. rural voters, improving education and its funding, building up the infrastructure for roads, creating affordable healthcare, resolving the opioid crisis and more.
Gathered at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center, they exchanged views in one-minute bursts under the guidance of moderator Joe Denk, vice president and general manager of Local 24 News. Candidates received the questions in advance.
They are vying for the seat vacated by former Sen. Mark Norris when he stepped down to accept a vacant federal judgeship in west Tennessee in October.
Republican candidates include former Shelby County Commissioners George Chism of Collierville and Heidi Shafer of Lakeland, former state Rep. Steve McManus of Collierville and businessman Paul Rose of Covington.
The sole Democrat challenger, Eric R. Coleman of Bartlett, declined to participate in a forum until after the primary.
The primary is on Jan. 24 with the special general election on March 12. The winning candidate will complete the two remaining years of Norris’ term.
Forum coordinators were the Bartlett Area Chamber of Commerce, the Bartlett Chamber Foundation and Leadership Bartlett.
QUESTION 1: Urban vs. rural. District 32 is composed of several of Tennessee’s largest suburban municipalities. It also includes a fairly large rural community. As senator, how will you ensure that both urban and rural constituents are treated equitably?
Chism said he and his sister grew up for a while on a farm south of Winchester, and he understands what rural life is all about and what hard work is involved. He learned a different lifestyle when his family moved to the suburbs. He cited his work on the county commission and noted that he has built relationships from working with current and former mayors of Bartlett, Arlington and Lakeland, and he plans to build on those relationships.
“You get feedback, you take the feedback and process it, and then you make the decision that’s the best decision based upon whether it’s rural, suburban, inner city, wherever,” he said.
Rose said the urban, suburban and rural areas of District 32 complement each other, and he has a broad base of support from leaders and citizens in all three. He cited his business relationships for the past 45 years throughout west Tennessee and beyond.
He said, “I understand you have to listen, and you have to understand what the issues are, but I have worked and lived in this district for many years, and I think the biggest thing you need to do is listen. Listen to the needs of all the folks in those areas and then make decisions that are appropriate for all.”
Shafer said she was born and raised on a farm, and she understands rural farm economies and small town economies to her core. Serving as finance chair on the county commission for the state’s largest county, she learned intimately how large urban and suburban economies work. She mentioned how suburban, urban and rural areas are interdependent for success. She looks toward the “beautiful sweet spot” that can uplift all three areas.
McManus said he chaired the Commerce Committee during his House tenure, and he noticed a glaring omission between city and rural areas: Access to broadband.
“And that is absolutely critical,” he said.
He met with city and industry stakeholders and chaired several committees about how to possibly bring broadband internet to rural Tennessee. McManus also referenced a current $10 million grant currently in Tennessee for broadband deployment.
QUESTION 2: Memphis vs. suburbs. It goes without saying that what is good for Memphis is good for its suburbs. However, Memphis has not always seemed to reciprocate that feeling. There is a legitimate concern that some Memphis politicians would like to deprive the suburbs of their entitlements for services and representation. What will you do to ensure that suburban Shelby County is treated fairly and equitably?
Rose said it was his privilege and sometimes his challenge to work with Memphis Light Gas and Water (MLGW) and the city of Memphis. He’s been successful working collaboratively with them over the years. “I found that if you communicate and keep the communications open, and you share what you’re trying to do … that they are willing to work with you.”
Shafer said she was prepared when she took on the role of a county commissioner, but it was a surprise and a challenge when Memphis and Shelby County school districts merged. “I fought hard to make sure that the municipalities would have the opportunity and the funding to be able to determine their own school systems. … I don’t think that any municipality can force its will on everyone else. I think you have to have that balance. I saw it again with the city of Memphis when they tried to cut off sewer. … I immediately took to the airwaves and advocated.”
McManus said he’s stood up and fought the city of Memphis on numerous occasions, including the annexation by referendum in 2012. “It was just the heavy hand of city government saying, ‘We’re gonna take you in.’ I said, ‘Really? What about the rights of the voters here?’”
He said he then co-sponsored legislation that passed in the House of Representatives, requiring a vote for future annexations.
He also noted that there were quite a few Tennessee cities that were not making their required contribution to the pension plan. The outcome was passing major legislation that imposes consequences on Memphis and other cities not funding their pensions.
Chism said the main reason he ran for the Shelby County Commission was the absorption of Memphis schools into the Shelby County system. “It wasn’t fun,” he said. “Everyone said they’re gonna fail. But we knew they wouldn’t. I didn’t miss a meeting. … But at the same time I’ve worked with the people in Memphis. I’ve got relationships in there. I’ve put youth football teams in Binghampton. Those teams have come out here and played in your football league. I’ve also been a member of the Westwood Neighborhood Association for about 32 years now. I think I’m the only one that looks like me and walks like me and quacks like me.”
QUESTION 3: Road infrastructure. TN-385 and I-269 remain unfinished with connecting Millington and Tipton County with downtown Memphis. To travel from downtown Memphis to Covington during rush hour can take well over an hour. Yet this trip should take probably just over 30 minutes by interstate. Without a doubt, all roads lead to Mississippi, and that state has outmaneuvered Tennessee concerning road infrastructure for metro Memphis. Mississippi’s roads contribute to its success regarding economic development and population growth, while Tennessee seems oblivious to the fact that metro Memphis’s counties to the north are still decades behind with adequate roads for the egress and ingress into Memphis and Shelby County. How do you feel about the Memphis area’s road infrastructure, and how would you address this important issue?
Shafer said the 21 counties of west Tennessee are being badly left behind. “It’s our roads, our bridges, our interchanges. Shoot, when they were putting in the bridge there at Poplar/240, they were going to lay in new bridge that was only two lanes at the area they call Malfunction Junction. I got involved and they said it couldn’t be done. I got involved and got TDOT (Tennessee Department of Transportation) to change their mind. We’ve now got a three-lane bridge in there to open up.”
She said Mississippi is even laying road tracks over the state boundary into Tennessee. “We must open up 269. That in itself could help with the fact we don’t have enough land mass for some of the other business projects that are coming in. We could open up Tipton County and Shelby County to be one easy solid economic sector. We must do it, and you’re gonna need a fighter to do it. You’re gonna need somebody who can move legislation to do it.”
McManus recalled that during his years as a state representative, particularly when he chaired the Commerce Committee for 2010-16, it came to light that the state had depleted a lot of funds that should have gone to TDOT. “The road funding in particular was gone. There was a tremendous backlog. So that was part of the issue that we had for years.”
He was not serving in the House in 2017 and 2018, when the Legislature passed the IMPROVE Act, raising taxes at the gas pump but also lowering sales taxes on food and phasing out the Hall income tax. That led to issuing $297 million in contracts to whittle away at the state’s $10 billion backlog in road projects. He believes that funding was a good start, although civil engineers still give the state a C+ rating.
Chism said TN-385 and I-269 are the arteries that are moving District 32. video available from multiple changes and the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) program highlights 385 as the “cornerstone of development” for the area.
He said it’s critical to work with TDOT. The largest expenditure in the state was for the flyover for I-40 and I-240 in Memphis. Now we have the Lamar corridor, Chism said. “We’ve got to be able to move people in and out.”
He pointed to how FedEx drives the local economy, spending over $1 million daily in taxes just on fuel alone. “But our corridors do not move traffic. Mississippi’s done a good job. We need to get our expenditure in line and get those traffic lines fixed.”
Rose said he travels regularly on Highways 14 and 51 to get to Memphis from Tipton County, and he understands the need to complete 269 from Shelby County through Tipton and to Dyer County. When he inquired, he learned that TDOT has 1,500 backlogged jobs in front of that project.
“In my opinion, that’s totally unacceptable,” he said. “Yes, they have 1,500 jobs that are backlogged, but this has been on the books for years and years.”
QUESTION 4: Education. What are your top priorities for improving public education?
Recruit the best teachers and pay them well, McManus said. He also cited the Peer Power Foundation, a non-profit at the University of Memphis that recruits high-performing people to tutor and mentor middle and high school students in Shelby County. He said it was a factor in Whitehaven’s more than 92 percent graduation rate. Eighty percent of those children then went on to college or other post-secondary schools.
“So we’ve got to get creative and think of things like that. Fund them,” he said.
McManus further recalled teachers telling him in the past to emphasize pre-kindergarten education.
Chism comes from a long line of educators, and his father taught him and his sister that teachers have to teach, but they have to have the proper amount of resources and the policies have to be in line.
“But right now we have a lot of teachers that have to worry about tests that aren’t applicable, tests that don’t work. That’s something that’s got to go away,” he said. “We’ve got to protect our classroom, and not just in K-12. We’ve got buildings that our tax dollars have paid for. We’ve got auto mechanics. We’ve got welding. We’ve got medical device here in Bartlett. These buildings need to be open at night. We’ve got a large workforce that needs to be educated – an adult workforce. Those make us a more profitable and better viable city. It gives work, and it gives value.”
Rose said he looks forward to working with Rep. Mark White, who’s been appointed chair of the House Education Committee, and Debra Moody, who’s been appointed to the education subcommittee working on curriculum, testing and innovation. He expects to work with them as they join Gov. Lee to identify deficiencies in our education program.
He also looks forward to an initiative that directs students who aren’t necessarily college bound, to make sure they are being tracked into vocational-technical programs and community colleges “so when they leave high school on Saturday they can have a job on Monday.”
Shafer, a teacher herself, said she knows the difference between what sounds good in a board room and what is actually going to work in a classroom. A lot of state-level reforms have been good, she said, but they need tweaking.
She would like to see 10-15 percent less testing. “What I’m hearing from students and teachers is there is not enough time for actual classroom education.”
She also said teacher pay was frozen because the tests didn’t work. Teachers who were due a raise didn’t get it because of the failure of the test and because the tests that are given are not aligned.
“There’s a lot we can do, but it’s going to take someone with real knowledge of the classroom to make it work,” she said.
QUESTION 5: Education funding. What is your plan to provide adequate funding for all public schools?
McManus believes the state’s funding formula, known as the Basic Education Program, or BEP, needs to be really tweaked, and the Legislature is currently taking a close look at that. He cited useful funding efforts at the state level such as Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect to provide free education at the post-secondary level.
Chism said it’s critical to improve education funding at secondary, collegiate and workforce development levels. That means working with the buildings and resources we already have.
“We’ve opened up education – it’s free,” he said. “You live in Tennessee, you have no excuse whatsoever for not bettering yourself. You have that ability.”
But Tennessee also needs to work better with corporations to make it easier for employees to further educate themselves, he said.
Rose said the state ranks 44th in per-student funding. He would like to identify areas where we could do a better job of identifying where to spend our money. He wants to work with school boards, administrators and parents to better identify deficiencies and what is needed in schools. The next step would be to petition the state, which he said has a $2 billion surplus now, to provide adequate funding for schools and reward performing teachers.
Shafer said the state has the ultimate responsibility for education, although it sometimes allows counties and municipalities to take over that. “But I noticed that they are shifting most of the burden for the cost of it to the counties and the municipalities. We have been picking up the note on the county level for a long time now, and the municipalities are picking up a huge note.”
She continued, “We need to increase the amount of BEP funding to the local schools at the state level. I know how to build a team. I know how to move those things forward. You’re not going to get anywhere by yourself or by just saying platitudes. You need to build the team and move the agenda forward. Sometimes that means breaking a few eggs, but our schools are worth it, and our kids are worth it. Our future is worth it.”
QUESTION 6: Healthcare. Many rural hospitals have closed, and currently about a half million Tennesseans are without insurance. According to the cheat sheet, no state has more to gain by accepting federal subsidies than Tennessee. The state could save almost 5 percent of its budget by accepting federal money and expanding Medicaid. However, the state appears to have no interest; instead, over $22 million is being left on the table. What is your position regarding the healthcare situation here in Tennessee?
Shafer said the issue is complex, as evidenced by how many years it’s been debated at the state level.
“The problem is that the ACA (Affordable Care Act), commonly known as Obamacare, has a lot of poison pills to it that the state of Tennessee just is not willing to burden themselves with. The federal government has only promised to pay for a certain amount for a certain time, and then they could pull that rug out from underneath it. And then guess who gets to pay for it?”
What the state has done is authorize block grants. Shafer said she has good relationships with intergovernmental agencies and with Health & Human Services in D.C., and she said they believe there is a way for Tennessee to move forward with block grants and go after the funding so Tennesseans aren’t paying for healthcare for people in San Francisco, Baltimore and Detroit.
McManus, who formerly chaired the Insurance and Banking Committee, said TennCare has a lot of wasteful spending and needs to be fixed before it can be expanded. He also spoke with his peers in other states that accepted Medicaid expansion, and they said it totally blew their budgets.
Chism said he existing Medicaid program is flawed and the current Medicaid expansion proposal is too expensive. Although the federal government promised to pay 90 percent, it didn’t say for how long. Thirty-four states did take the money, so Tennessee now has more information on how that funding was applied and how effective it was.
He also suggested the use of block grants, which are large chunks of money with fewer strings attached to them.
Finally, he said the ACA might be revised, with plenty of work, bridge-building and relationships. But he speculated that it might be more practical to fix TennCare instead of reinventing the wheel.
Rose said he approves of Tennessee’s decision to decline the federal funds because taking those funds would leave the state in the lurch when funding is withdrawn. Instead, he said the state should focus on attracting companies with good-paying jobs that provide private healthcare and allow many to get off the public healthcare system.
QUESTION 7: Healthcare and the opioid epidemic. The opioid epidemic is a national crisis. Its impact is felt especially hard here in Tennessee. As healthcare providers and employers, we see the devastation of the problem every day. While much is being done to address opioid abuse, there is still a need for more funding and resources to treat and prevent further addiction. What are some approaches you would support to help address this critical issue of opioid addiction?
Rose said as we’ve restricted the opioids, we’ve seen increased use of fentanyl and heroin as street drugs. The U.S. needs to do all it can to prevent those drugs from entering the country, and he sees building a border wall as essential to controlling what is coming across the U.S. border.
He also wants to see better provision of drug courts and funding to law enforcement to address those who are distributing drugs, as well as providing Narcan (a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose) as a tool to help addicts.
Shafer said when she chaired the Shelby County Commission, within a few months they put together a cross-jurisdictional and cross-functional task force and program that is the best in the nation according to Health & Human Services in D.C. It works with law enforcement, the medical community, the justice system, and U.S. attorneys to help people recover from opioid abuse and to help communities by stopping the opioids from coming in. She would like to continue with similar efforts.
“We need to stay flexible, we need to stay creative, and we need to keep working together,” she said.
McManus estimated that this year’s state budget included about $14 million to fight the opioid epidemic, with most of that going to law enforcement. He said that as a legislator, he had great conversations with Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, sheriffs and police chiefs about what needed to be done at the legislative level. He said he would ask for more money than $14 million and continue those dialogs.
Chism said the opioid epidemic is a train that’s been barreling down the track for several years, and we are trying to get in front of that train, assuming we can figure out how to stop it. Problems include the need to regulate drugs coming into the U.S., limit the excessive prescription of opioids and increase education.
QUESTION 8: Funding inequity between Tennessee regions. Many financial analysts state that west Tennessee, including Memphis, receives proportionately less return on its tax dollars than other sectors of the state for roads, sewage, education and other needs. Will you work to address the apparent inequity in the state’s resources for west Tennessee?
“Of course,” Chism said. “You want to work with that. You want to get your fair share.”
He said it would also include distributing those funds equitably throughout District 32.
He continued, “The Megasites and some other things that have been disproportionately removed or moved over to the side, folks, we’ve got to move those front and center. … We’ve got everything in our power right here in Tennessee. We need to market it better and get it front. Then we’ll get those resources based on distribution.”
Rose said he would work to bring more funding to west Tennessee. He agreed with Chism that the Megasite has to be completed, and “we’ve got to scream for the funding to do that, along with the roads that we discussed earlier and the sewer issue that we have here in Shelby County with the moratorium even on sewer additions. Those are just unacceptable. They will not work for business and economic development.”
Shafer agreed that west Tennessee suffers from funding inequities. She pointed to Regional One (formerly The Med) and said that federal reimbursement for losses there goes into a state pool, and the facility doesn’t get dollar-for-dollar reimbursement. Instead, the money is distributed to all the Tennessee hospitals selected for the funds. The same thing happened with the tobacco lawsuit, using Shelby County data to win the case but not giving back dollar-for-dollar reimbursement.
“It was pennies on the dollar that we got reimbursed,” she said. “We have got to do something about it. I don’t just talk a good game – I do something about it.”
McManus said his years of funding experience will help west Tennessee, and that’s badly needed with Norris’ career move, Curry Todd’s resignation, and Ron Lollar’s death. “That’s critical, because we would band together during the budgetary process to work to bring the money back to Shelby County.”
Question 9: Economic development. It is well known within the economic development profession that there is a critical shortage of industrial land and buildings. It is a national concern, and it is definitely being felt here in Tennessee. There are three key factors: A lack of infrastructure at potential sites, risk-averse investors and unmotivated private landowners. This is not an easy problem to fix, but our policy makers must be engaged in order for a solution to be found. What would you do to address the shortage of industrial real estate in Tennessee?
Rose said he confirmed there really is a shortage, with a need for 500-acre sites throughout the entire state. Identifying those sites will be challenging but necessary. First, complete the Megasite, because it’s difficult to ask for additional funding for property to build industry sites when you have one that’s been sitting there for 12 years with $125 million tied up in a 41-acre site that is not ready for industry.
Shafer said she has worked with EDGE for a long time, and she’s learned that a good mix is about 40 percent manufacturing, about 40 percent office and about 20 percent warehouse. Warehousing takes up the most land, while manufacturing takes up a small fraction of that and is easier to locate even in urban areas. “And their equipment is harder to move, so they’re not likely to just pull up stakes the way a warehouse is and quickly move down to Mississippi.”
She also suggested working with Tipton County to position for warehouse jobs.
McManus said we sometimes need to just look at the land we have. He referred to Tax Increment Financing (the TIF Bill), currently in use by Graceland and University of Memphis Union Row. It involves designating a property as a TIF property, freezing the taxes that come back to the municipality and then working that land so it begins to grow in value. That extra money made is frozen to the municipality and goes off to pay off the bond that was issued for the whole financing of that particular area.
Chism said we are seeing growth in north Mississippi. By comparison, the warehouses in District 32 are antiquated. He referred to a group in Tennessee called Certify Sites, which comes in to evaluate an area and advises on how to improve and make that business equitable and valuable. Then take incentives through EDGE, for example, and make it enticing for them to stay in Tennessee.
Closing remarks
Chism commended the forum’s audience for being engaged in the candidate selection process, and he praised former Sen. Mark Norris for his service. He mentioned his own service in the county commission for the past four years and added that he’s honored to have the endorsement of many of the elected officials within this district – many of the mayors, boards of aldermen, all the superintendents – as well as teachers and others.
He said, “One minute doesn’t give you a lot of time to tell what you’re gonna do and how you’re going to change it. The people who are endorsing me, know it and know me well. In closing, I’d appreciate your support and your vote.”
Rose said he looks forward to working with Gov. Bill Lee and his administration to provide affordable healthcare, good-paying jobs, attracting new industry and promoting public safety.
He continued, “One of the highlights and one of the things about this campaign for me is getting to know people I would never have gotten to know. It’s been an honor to go into your homes and into your businesses and ask for your vote, to make friends, to seek endorsements, and I’m thankful for the support I’ve gotten throughout this district, and I look forward to serving you as your next state senator. And to get there, I need your vote. So I will close with asking for you to prayerfully consider voting for me to be your next state senator.”
Shafer thanked taxpayers for the opportunity to serve them for the past eight years. “I promised when I ran that I would hang in there and do the job. I ran on cutting taxes, and I’m going to tell you, everybody said, ‘Sounds great, but nobody ever gets it done.’ In my tenure, we passed three true tax cuts, the only county in the state of Tennessee that passed tax cuts. I want to bring that same kind of commonsense thinking and advocating for the taxpayers to Nashville. I’m Heidi Shafer – I have a reputation for fiscal discipline, staying in touch with my people, and getting things done. I’m asking for your vote so that I can work for you and get what you want done in Nashville.”
McManus reminded the audience that the successful candidate will have to jump in immediately to effectively fill the remaining two years of Norris’ term. “This is not a four-year job; it’s a two-year job. It’s really not a lot of time to learn while you’re on this particular job. I think about one thing. This election is going to be over in the middle of March. Whoever wins this election is going to go back with only one month left for this term. You’re going to be right in the middle of the budget process. The budget of Tennessee, folks, is $38.7 billion. It’s huge. Budget and appropriations – that’s been my background while I served in Nashville. I served on every fiscal committee. There’s no time to learn when you get back there. You’re gonna get right into it. We’ve lost so many people in the Shelby County delegation – good Republicans – that we need as much experience as we can to get up there right away and be as effective as we possibly can be for you, our constituents, to bring what needs to be brought home in an effective manner.”
