TN State School Bond Authority Announces New Program of Loans for School Construction

Notice was distributed this week by the State Comptroller's Office that the Tennessee State School Bond Auhtority (TSSBA) has approved a new program that will provide low- or no-interest loans of up to $20 million for school systems to build new schools or to rehabilitate or repair existing ones. These loans will be made from the proceeds of Qualified School Construction Bonds issued by the TSSBA. These bonds were created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Public Chapter 601 of the Acts of 2009 was passed by the Tennessee General Assembly to establish the Qualified School Construction Bonds Program in Tennessee. The total bonding authority available to Tennessee for 2009 is $184.6 million. Other than a portion of the funds which have been allocated Memphis and Nashville, eligibility is not dependent on size or poverty levels. The bulk of the funds are available for all other Tennessee school systems through a competitive process administered by TSSBA with assistance from the TN Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

There is a short turn around on this process. The deadline for applications is 4:30 P.M. on August 21, 2009. An information session will be held on August 6, 2009 at 1:30 P.M. in Room 16 of the Legislative Plaza in Nashville. Instructions and application criteria are available here.

It is expected that applications will be reviewed and approved in September with the bonds sold the last week in October.

Tennessee SCORE Releases Interim Report on Education Reform

On July 30, 2009, the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (TN SCORE)released an Interim Report entitled the "State of Education in Tennessee." The report provides a broad description of the K-12 education system in Tennessee and outlines the state's strengths and weaknesses. It also highlights 34 promising practices from districts across the state and includes a detailed profile on each of the state's 136 school districts. This is an interim report, with a final report and recommendations expected from the organization this fall. I'm excited that folks from group have approached the TCCA about participating in our regional meetings which begin next month. If you would like to find out more about this organization and read or download a copy of the report, go here.

Regional Meeting Dates and Locations Set

As happens every year, the TCCA will be conducting a series of regional dinner meetings across the state. These meetings usually run a couple of hours and provide an opportunity to discuss what happened this year, look forward to the issues of the next legislative session and focus on emerging issues impacting county governments. I hope you can attend one of these meetings in your area. Dinner is provided by the association at each meeting. All meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. local time. Folks usually begin arriving a little earlier to meet, network and socialize. More information will be forthcoming about our meeting agenda, but for now, here are the dates and locations:

August 25 Volunteer State Community College (Rochelle Conference Center), Sumner County
August 27 Paris Landing State Park, Henry County
September 1 Jonesborough Visitors Center, Washington County
September 2 City County Building, Knox County
September 3 Leslie Towne Center, Putnam County
September 8 UT Ag Extension Building, Madison County
September 10 Holiday Inn Mountain View, Bradley County
September 17 Henry Horton State Park, Marshall County

Legislative Session Wrap UP

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. At the close of the legislative session, the pace of activity gets hectic. It is hard to keep things updated here when that happens and I apologize for my being delinquent. The session went well into June, ending after the TSCA Post-Legislative Conference. Thankfully, we had a great conference in Gatlinburg. Even though every issue wasn't wrapped up at that time, we had a good indication of where many issues were going and were able to discuss these matters. We also had interesting presentations related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its impact on counties. You should have been receiving the Capitol Update, that reviewed where many of our issues ended up. Look for the upcoming edition of the Tennessee County News for more detail. Also, the County Techinical Assistance Service will be developing their annual Index of Acts that summarizes all legislation passed which affects counties. That will be posted on their website later this summer. I will link to it here when it becomes available.