Creating Environments for Success

 Mr./Ms. Tennessee Voter, 

It's an election year. Tennessee legislators up for re-election are eager to get out of the Capitol and into their districts, so much so that they want to finish the session by the end of March.

There is one question voters in every district should ask their incumbent candidates before casting their votes this year:

“What have you done to create the environment for us (me, my children, my business, my county, my state) to be successful?”

Chances are, no voter has ever asked that of any elected official but they should.

Especially this year. Consider the following:

In 1999, the legislature passed a bill permitting municipal electric utilities to offer broadband and high speed internet to their electric utility customers. They didn't do this to be nice guys. Not at all. They were responding to angry demands from their voters and feared that if they didn't give them what they wanted, there'd be no next term for them.

The legacy carriers were dead set against the bill. They mounted a counter effort and poured millions into stopping it but they came to realize there was no way to win. But they were able to limit the damages to their monopolies. By restricting the utilities to serving just their electric customers, they prevented a tsunami of consumers from flowing away.

In effect, the legislators had unwittingly created the environment for success in Tennessee -- some parts, anyway – for individuals, businesses, healthcare systems, counties, students and senior citizens.

Now, not all municipalities took advantage of the new law. After all, it was risky business, and many utilities were unsure of the outcome. So, they sat on their hands, while seven cities (Bristol, Morristown, Chattanooga, Clarksville, Jackson, Tullahoma and Pulaski, tiny Pulaski, took the plunge – and achieved success and prosperity beyond their imagining.

The cities added thousands of new jobs, improved education opportunities for all students, from k-12 to online college students and researchers, attracted new businesses, helped exisiting businesses expand, created new think tanks and business incubators and more. All this while the communities and counties around them watched, helplessly constrained by a Tennessee law written to benefit corporate donors.

This term, in the 109^th General Assembly, two bills are offered in the House and Senate respectively that can remove those limitations and allow success to reach all of Tennessee's counties over time. The bills are HB1303 and SB1134, with the simplest writing ever submitted to a legislature:

• As introduced, allows each municipality operating an electric plant to provide services outside its electric system service area.

So, dear readers, if passed into law, the fortunes of all Tennesseans will look up. Not all at once, but over time. Some rural communities are more difficult to navigate than others. But consider that it took some 17 years for the bill passed in 1999 to have its effects, the next phase can seem lightningly fast.

It's election year. You will know well before any primary votes are cast, whether your current representative voted to create the environment for your success – or if they took the vote that brought them large campaign donations. This time when you attend a town hall meeting, and ask your incumbent legislators that very important question in front of your fellow citizens, you'll know immediately what your vote in the primary or the general election will be.

For more information, email Joe Malgeri jmalgeri@gmail.com and follow his blogposts at www.4adynamictn.com

One last thing. If your current incumbent legislator has no announced opposition yet, it makes sense to contact him or her immediately to ask their position. If they're against creating the environment for your success, there's still time to find an opponent -- or to entering the race yourself.