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Two key legislative committees voted Wednesday to strip away $200 million proposed by Gov. Invoice Lee to relocate 14 Tennessee faculties inbuilt floodplains, together with three in Shelby County.
The amended spending invoice, which can quickly head to the complete Home and Senate, seems to shift that cash as an alternative into the state’s wet day fund, which might develop to a report $1.8 billion.
The Republican governor had trumpeted his faculty relocation plan throughout his January state deal with, however in voting it down, GOP leaders in each the Home and Senate pointed to confusion over the checklist of colleges recognized as being at excessive threat of flooding.
“On the finish of the day, the 2 chambers negotiating with one another determined that we’d not get into that form of coverage of constructing faculties domestically,” stated Sen. Bo Watson, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
The change to the state’s 2022-23 price range plan comes as tons of of scholars in Humphreys County attend faculty in a repurposed warehouse after surging floodwaters destroyed their elementary and center faculties final August close to Waverly, a rural city west of Nashville. The catastrophe, which killed 20 individuals and destroyed tons of of properties, was the impetus for the governor’s proposal “to make sure that no pupil in Tennessee attends a public faculty situated in a flood zone.”
Lee’s press secretary, Casey Black, stated the governor was “conscious and monitoring” legislative adjustments to his spending plan however she declined to remark additional.
Flood management advocates expressed shock.
“We will solely think about what number of extra lives would have been misplaced in Waverly if the flooding had occurred throughout faculty hours as an alternative of on the weekend,” stated Dwain Land, the previous mayor of Dunlap, who spoke with Chalkbeat on behalf of Flood Prepared Tennessee, a coalition of native officers, householders, and first responders.
“This funding is essential as a result of we all know this sort of factor will occur time and again, and it’s not value dropping extra lives,” Land stated. “We will’t predict the place a twister goes to hit, however we are able to predict the place it’s going to flood.”
Some legislators and native officers have been confused by the checklist of 14 faculties the governor recognized.
For one factor, the 2 Humphreys County faculties wrecked in August weren’t on the checklist, irritating officers making an attempt to rebuild after the flooding, stated Rep. Jay Reedy, a Republican whose district consists of the Waverly space. (The amended price range supplies as much as $20 million to assist Humphreys County Colleges if insurance coverage and federal catastrophe aid funds don’t cowl the complete value.)
A number of totally different lists of flood-prone faculties have additionally floated round, together with one which confirmed 25 Tennessee faculties liable to flooding.
In Memphis, the place Wooddale Center Faculty was slated for relocation beneath the governor’s plan, directors stated they didn’t understand the state-run faculty was in a flood plain and have but to be contacted by the governor’s workplace.
“This has all been information to us,” stated Jocquell Rodgers, chief exterior affairs officer for Inexperienced Dot Public Colleges, a constitution community that operates Wooddale on a campus owned by Memphis-Shelby County Colleges.
“We additionally didn’t perceive how Wooddale Center is within the flood zone however Wooddale Excessive will not be, as a result of they’re basically on the identical block,” Rodgers stated.
Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, who chairs the Home Finance Committee, referred to as the checklist of colleges a “shifting goal” and stated “there have been simply loads of questions on that.”
GOP leaders didn’t specify the place the $200 million eliminated for varsity relocation would go, however the price range modification confirmed a $200 million addition to the wet day fund, an emergency account the state can use to maintain the federal government working in case of a income shortfall.
“There have been a couple of issues we moved round as a way to present funding for non-recurring (bills.)” Watson advised the Senate panel.
That call left different lawmakers questioning the state’s priorities.
“In case your faculty’s in a flood plain, you’d most likely choose spending cash to maneuver earlier than the subsequent massive rain somewhat than pumping cash into the wet day fund,” Senate Minority Chief Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, stated after the committee votes.
Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
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