Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Nashville action
In Naswhville action this week........................... Legislation sponsored by Republican Jeremy Faison of Cosby, that would have made medical marijuana use legal in Tennessee is dead for the year. Faison said Tuesday the bill has been removed from pending legislation and a task force will discuss the issue over the summer. Faison said it's not because of the lack of support in the House that the bill died. "The Senate, bless their heart, are just scared to death of their voters," Faison said after the House Health Committee sent the marijuana resolution to summer study. Faison said he believes the House would have passed his bill, which would have established a medical marijuana program managed by three different state agencies and begun in economically distressed parts of the state, including Cocke County. The lawmaker says there still exists an irrational fear of marijuana and a stigma that it is a terrible drug. "That plant — it's not killing us, it's the legal prescriptions that are killing us," argues Faison. A Tennessee Senate committee Tuesday unanimously approved an amended version of the frequently discussed measure to increase the fuel tax. The Senate State and Local Government Committee voted 9-0 in favor of the amended gas tax plan, which would raise the state's tax on gasoline by 6 cents per gallon over a three year period. The proposal, which was altered in a separate Senate committee last week, also reduces the state's tax on groceries, eliminates a proposed fee on rental cars and provides tax relief to the elderly and disabled veterans. The amended Senate proposal is estimated to generate about $250 million for the state, $35 million for cities and $70 million for counties.


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