Nashville's Dean says that social legislation affects the business climate

In an interview with The City Paper, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean noted that when businesses consider Nashville, they sometimes have concerns about the social legislation coming from the Tennessee General Assembly.  He contrasts that socially conservative agenda at the state level with the commitment to non-discrimination in Metro Nashville:

You mentioned fielding calls from other cities and people checking out Nashville and how hot it is. When you’re fielding those calls, do you ever hear, “Gee, we’d love to come down, all this social agenda legislation is worrying us.” Do they ever say, “What the hell is going on with the legislature in Tennessee?”
Dean: I won’t mention names, I’m not really at liberty to mention it, but there have been companies who have actually come here who have heard about some of the social legislation and expressed concern. My position has always been, particularly in the area of nondiscrimination, that that absolutely shoots us in the foot. Particularly if you’re a cultural city and an artistic city and a university city. I think Nashville stands on its own. I think people look at Nashville and know that it’s different. Cities have to be friendly, which we are. Cities have to be inclusive, which I think we are, and we try to get more and more inclusive. That’s the way government in cities should operate. But I have heard it. The business [in question] came.

I wonder whether the business-friendly Legislature will get the message.  More correctly, I wonder what it will take for the Legislature to get the message that restrictive social legislation is unattractive for business growth and development.  To give credit, some legislators from both parties do, but not nearly enough.

Until the Legislature gets the message, it will be important for more cities to pass inclusive non-discrimination ordinances like Knoxville and Metro Nashville.  But at some point, we need a fundamental change at the state level.  Corporations are going to have to add their voices to the national media and equality advocates in Tennessee if that is going to take place.  Let's hope it does.

-Chris Sanders

Rocky Top, you'll always be...

Dawn Coppock is pretty disgusted with BusinessTN's May edition in which the publication rates the best and worst lawmakers for business. I wasn't too pleased with the article in question myself.

In the July edition, which is not online yet, she comes to the defense of Sen. Raymond Finney. She argues that the magazine not only misinterpreted the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, but they ignored the tourism industry so vital to Sevier and surrounding counties.

"No one will come here to see a topless Rocky Top or mountains that look like highway medians. There are plenty of mountains to our north decapitated by coal mining. That is one reason we don have to compete with Kentucky and West Virginia for tourists."

Best and worst legislators for business

BusinessTN's May issue is out and with it comes "The Best & Worst Lawmakers for Business in Tennessee." The best are Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, Rep. Charles Curtiss, Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, Sen. Jamie Woodson. Sen. Bill Ketron gets an honorable mention.

The worst are House Majority Leader Gary Odom, Sen. Michael Williams, Sen. Ray Finney, Rep. Mike Turner, and Sen. Ophelia Ford. Rep. Henry Fincher gets "dishonorable mention."

Explaining their criteria, they write: "As litmus for determining the selections, BusinessTN sticks to legislative stances clearly identified as good or bad for business...Lastly, BusinessTN heavily weights a lawmaker's actual ability to have a positive or negative effect on the state's business climate."

But when you read the individual entries you realize that things are a bit slippery. When discussing Lt. Governor Ramsey, the piece says, "Ramsey and his Senate Republican majority has hiccuped on a pro-business agenda from time to time stemming mainly from their conservative stances on social issues." They cite his opposition to pre-K expansion, which enhances "workforce development." Um, what about his strong support for the marriage discrimination amendment, which makes the state less welcoming to GLBT people? Think that's not an issue? Talk to someone in Nissan H.R. about the kind of questions they got about Tennessee from management employees when it was announced that the corporate headquarters was moving here.

On the other side of the aisle and in the other chamber, Speaker Naifeh is praised for helping get the tobacco tax hike passed even though it's (a) a tax, which is generally a bad word at BusinessTN and (b) a tax targeting a business with important ties to the state. But since it was done in the interest of "the state's workforce development needs," it's all right. Huh? Maybe he did it purely for the health interests of people.

Even more confusing than the descriptions of the "best" are the droppings the piece leaves on the "worst." The only real anti-business tag they can stick to Gary Odom is his interest in regulating for-profit colleges, which the magazine describe as "important to Tennessee's workforce." In fact, they go on to describe him as "previously viewed as unfriendly to business, Odom has repaired that reputation..." The rest of the section on the House Majority Leader is a series of petty attacks on political issues that have nothing to do with the criteria the magazine set out for its picks. It's just character assassination.

Furthermore, this idea of workforce development is used to justify policies that are directly anti-business in the near-term. It's curious how some investments in workers are seen as visionary, whereas raising the minimum wage (their swipe at Mike Turner) and improving the workers compensation process for...yes, workers (those people BusinessTN seems so interested in "developing")...are perceived as anti-business. Besides, there is a legimitate debate as to whether a rising mimimum wage hurts economic growth, as this Wall Street Journal piece points out. Those who directly benefit from it are the ones most likely to spend the money locally.

I think where this piece stumbles in the end is that it starts with criteria based on the common perception of what is and is not pro-business and then loosely applies these criteria while taking detours into issues that are not business related. It would have been more helpful if they had given us their understanding of what is good for the business climate in Tennessee in an introductory essay and then looked at the voting records and power of those legislators they wished to feature.

Anti-gay legislator in OK affects state's business climate

http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=88096

Interesting story out of Oklahoma about how Rep. Sally Kern's anti-gay comments are giving a company second thoughts about relocating to the state. This is the kind of argument we've got to make clearer to Tennessee's Legislature. It provides an additional compelling reason to kill negative bills and set a more inclusive climate.