Stockard on the Stump: Tenn Republican Caucus chair irritated by extremism

After 16 years in the Tennessee Legislature, Rep. Jeremy Faison has had enough of political polarization.

The Cosby Republican, who entered the General Assembly as more of a libertarian than a party ideologue, is heading home to the mountains of Cocke County, not necessarily because of fatigue, though it is a long drive, but feeling caught up in the tug-of-war between the far left and far right.

For the last few years, Faison says, he’s been mulling the need for people outside of politics to raise their voices, “reminding us that America’s not where this ‘Democrat Socialist’ agenda is, and America’s not really where … when you have a big part of your party who wants to give a woman a felony that got an abortion, that’s not where America is at. America’s not where we think dudes ought to compete against girls.”

He acknowledges these are “extreme examples.” Tennessee doesn’t have any Democratic Socialists in the legislature. But he says those issues are becoming “litmus tests” in primaries in extremely partisan districts. Considering his job as House Republican Caucus chairman for the last few years was, and remains, to help GOP candidates win elections, this is a bit of a confession. 

“That’s not where America’s at, bro,” Faison says repeatedly.

Faison tries to take a common-sense approach. He once made a push to legalize medical marijuana but hasn’t broached the idea lately. 

He hasn’t steered completely clear of cultural issues, passing a bill this year requiring reports to the state on transgender procedures. Faison also passed the bill last year that ended the Tennessee Human Rights Commission and put it under control of the Attorney General’s Office, which hired less staff and took up far fewer cases. The move has raised questions about whether the state is doing enough to stamp out discrimination, but Faison said this week he’s OK with smaller staff.

On the odder side, he passed the measure this year that allows people to keep raccoons as pets.

Yet as House Republicans went full tilt this year — and last — for the White House’s aggressive immigration agenda, Faison wasn’t exactly a fan. He cites legislation that would have allowed school districts to charge tuition to immigrant children without citizenship status as a sticking point. 

The measure passed the Senate in 2025 but couldn’t find traction in the House as Majority Leader William Lamberth ran into concerns about losing $1.1 billion in federal funding if lawmakers violated the constitutional requirement to educate all children, including immigrant kids without full legal documentation. 

The faces of Faison

“Leader Lamberth is one of my best friends. Love him dearly,” Faison said. “He and Chairman (Bo) Watson filed that bill two years ago, and I saw a good group of people in my caucus agree with that, and in society. When I opposed it, I got burnt up at home opposing that. It definitely is somewhat popular in the GOP circle.”

He understands the cry coming from the right but says he has a “major issue” with it. Numerous lawmakers didn’t want to treat kids as pawns in the fight over immigration enforcement. 

“They knew it then, I had a major issue with it, and I was going to do everything I could to stop the bill,” he says. 

The House wound up turning it into a headcount bill this year, but Watson, a Chattanooga Republican, didn’t bring his version back to the Senate for approval.

“Once we turn our attention to things such as that just to excite our base … well, I can’t tell why they do that. But I think the left and the right are both doing this. That’s not where America’s at,” he says.

Faison, who owns a pest control company, definitely holds conservative credentials. He doesn’t favor the idea of socialism in which people claim to deserve to be fed and housed, preferring to point out that people deserve what they earn.

When he finally leaves politics, or at least the state legislature later this year, he wants to be able to push back and be a little more open, something that’s hard to do in a House Republican Caucus leadership post.

“Society’s downstream of government and politics. People think it’s vice-versa. It’s not,” he says.

Faison contends that’s why voting percentages are so low. People don’t like either candidate, so they stay home, saying, “this is ridiculous.” 

He wants to build up, not tear down. How he does that remains to be seen. But in the Tennessee Legislature, that’s hard to do, and Faison isn’t the only one saying farewell because of the fighting.

A big disappointment

Lame-duck Gov. Bill Lee pooh-poohed the idea of calling a special session this year to rehash Tennessee’s property appraisal laws to give a break to Broadway bar owners who’ve seen their taxes skyrocket in Nashville’s tourism district.

Asked this week if he would bring lawmakers back to Nashville, Lee said, instead, he spoke to Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell about the impact of reappraisals and taxes on honky tonks and urged him to act.

Stockard on the Stump: Special session talk on tax appraisals rears its head

“It’s really important that we listen to business owners and we’re doing that and we’re hearing that,” Lee told reporters. “It’s also important to remember that the city makes collections for those business owners. So, I have talked to the mayor and I have encouraged him because the right direction to go there is for the city to provide temporary relief until a more permanent solution’s ready.”

The legislature passed legislation this year creating a state-controlled board to oversee $30 million in excess revenue and tap into $300 million in surplus funds held by the Nashville Convention Center Authority. It also allows the board to divert some of that money to Lower Broad businesses to pay property taxes. A bigger portion is expected to pay for part of Nashville’s 2030 Super Bowl bid.

Look for the legislature to take up something on property appraisals in 2027. But rewriting state laws to pick winners and losers among property owners is likely to run into constitutional problems. Such a move also puts the Republican-controlled legislature in danger of violating the values of capitalism they once held sacred.

A done deal

A saving grace for some Middle Tennessee motorists is one step closer to reality — if you live long enough — after a state transportation committee picked a consortium of transportation-related companies to build and operate toll lanes in southeast Nashville and down I-24.

DriveTN, which is made up of companies from Spain, France and Australia, offered to build lanes along I-40 and I-440 and down to Murfreesboro for $9.2 billion, nearly twice as much as the Department of Transportation estimated. The group promised to limit impact on local businesses and homeowners.

But clearly, the reason they’re getting the work is that they promised to give the state nearly $25 billion over the next 50 years. Two other bidding groups agreed to concede more than $7 billion and one bidder wanted the state to give it $250 million to start the job.

There’s no explaining why the offers are so divergent, except maybe that one group is ready to take a bigger risk. 

Tennessee taps road-building group for $9B toll lanes project

But this was a negotiated deal, not a hard bid. Thus, the nice packet of information stating why DriveTN is the preferred contractor, which was put together before the Transportation Modernization Committee cast any votes. State officials say more negotiations are forthcoming.

Somehow, the DriveTN group is planning to make a profit from tolls while spending $9.2 billion over about eight years and giving up almost $25 billion over half a century. The only way they can make money, though, is by charging motorists to use it. And they won’t collect a penny for several years, raising the question of whether anyone in the investment arm will be around to cash in. 

The state’s info packet assumes a minimum trip cost of $1 for the length of the roughly 30-mile corridor down I-24 toward Murfreesboro. That might be the case in the dark of night, not during rush hour. 

Toll rates in Virginia range from $2 on RMTA Powhite Parkway to $8.23 in peak periods on Midtown Tunnel from Norfolk to Portsmouth, according to TollGuru. Rates are dynamic on I-66, which is operated by the group that would run Tennessee’s toll lanes.

No doubt, motorists will have to make a “choice” about spending extra money to use these lanes, on top of the price of gas, which appears to depend on the next war. Investors are gambling that they’ll pay just about any price to get home a few minutes quicker.

One governor at a time, please

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican primary winner for this November’s election, says she’s going to pick her successor. And Lee doesn’t seem to be willing to get in her way.

Asked this week if he would try to circumvent Blackburn and pick her replacement, Lee said, “I think we will take governors one at a time, and I don’t give advice to the next governor.” He declined to comment further.

You’ll have to make your own interpretation. But one has to wonder if the inauguration took place Aug. 6.

The bigger point, though, is this: Either one of them at once is more than enough.

“Too much, too many people, too much” *

* “New York New York”, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five 

Lookout photographer John Partipilo contributed to this week’s endeavour.