Daily Dose for June 07, 2007

Democrats Push For Even Higher Tobacco Tax

Democrats Push For Even Higher Tobacco Tax -- Just three days after the General Assembly passed a historic increase in the state's tax on cigarette, House Democratic leaders say they want to up the tax again another 3 cents to pay for college scholarships to returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Rep. David Shepard, a Democrat, has a different bill that would increase the tax by another 8c. That bill would fund a state sales tax deduction on food. More here

Local Stories -- Here are some local government stories around the state:

• Chattanooga - School funding under Hamilton Co. Mayor Claude Ramsey's balanced budget will go up $7.5M over last year and that's not counting the $7.2M Hamilton Co is expected to receive this year due to the changes to the state's Basic Education Plan.


• Tri-Cities - A longtime employee with the city of Johnson City was arrested Tuesday night following a state and local investigation into alleged illegal activities. Danny Lynn Davis was arrested following an investigation by the TBI and charged with money laundering, theft over $10,000, forgery and official misconduct. The investigation alledges he set up fake companies to bid on city contract work, approved the city contracts for his own companies and then hired subcontractors to do the project and pocketed the difference.
• Knoxville - A commission set up to draft a county-wide ethics policy for Knox Co. will encourage the County Commission to develop a nepotism policy that addresses the widespread perception that County Commissioners and others involved in government work to have their close relatives hired for other county jobs. County Commission Chair Scott Moore, one of those accused of having close relatives in the Knox Co. Sheriff's Department, didn't seem warm to the idea. Moore: "The Ethics Committee doesn't have the authority to come up with a policy... If you start doing something like that, how far do you go?"
• Cookeville - Cookeville District Attorney Bill Gibson was suspended from duty in October but continues to draw a salary from the state. That's because there is no provision that allows elected DAs to be fired. In Gibson's case, there's no end in sight, leaving his former staff to work one man short on criminal cases in Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and White counties.

$12,000 an Hour -- Fred Thompson's web site imwithfred.com has reportedly raised over $12,000 per hour for the first 18 hours its been open for business. That's a total of $220K, which very well could be a record for online fundraising. The Hotline has the skinny on Fred's seasoned website development team, which includes tons of big names in online Republican circles. Fred has indicated he will run a non-traditional Internet-based campaign.

Posted by Adam Groves | Email This |