www.thecentersquare.com – By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-16 14:19:00
(The Center Square) – The Tennessee House and Senate passed a $59.8 billion budget amid questions from some lawmakers about possible federal cuts.
The fiscal year 2026 spending package represents more modest growth, a 2% rate.
“With revenues at more typical levels after years of historic growth, this budget reflects the careful discipline needed to protect Tennessee’s financial future,” said Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, chairman of the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. “We’ve kept recurring spending in check and preserved low taxes, while supporting critical community services and investing in rural hospitals that serve some of our most vulnerable populations.”
The budget bill adds just shy of $146 million for the Education Freedom Scholarships, the state’s school choice program approved by the General Assembly in a January special session.
Also included is $26 million in nonrecurring funds to help those affected by Hurricane Helene and $20 million in nonrecurring money to match FEMA relief dollars.
The largest chunk of money is a $1 billion allocation for transportation projects.
Gov. Bill Lee told The Center Square during an interview last month that the state has a $30 billion backlog of road projects that built up over decades. Lawmakers passed the Transportation Modernization Act two years ago as a vehicle to partner with the private sector to enhance the roads and made a $3 billion investment.
The governor said the $1 billion is a step in the right direction.
“We have worked to maintain our roads and our bridges and our highways,” Lee said. “We have not spent the money that we need to to expand those. We put a strong effort in maintaining, which is why we have a good road system that people are fairly satisfied with. We have congestion however and that has to be addressed.”
Democrats said they were concerned about possible cuts from the federal government that could affect consumers. House and Senate Democrats sent a letter to Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Bryson earlier this week, asking for more information about the impact of possible federal cuts. The questions continued during the budget debate.
“Speaking broadly, we should have measures that are going to cut costs for families right now,” said Sen. Charland Oliver, D-Nashville. “Folks are trying to figure out where do they save in their household budgets and one of the things that we took out in this piece of legislation in the appropriations amendment was something that the governor requested which was a $60 million starter home fund.”
The $60 million starter home fund was slashed in committee.
Legislators also agreed to issue bonds for some capital projects, most of them at the state’s colleges and universities.
“It’s been a while since we have issued debt,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin. “This will have no affect on our AAA credit ratings. At the beginning of the Lee administration, our debt service amounted to 2.4% of our tax collections. Today that number stands at 1.36%.”
The budget goes to Lee’s office for his consideration.
SUMMARY: Ta-Tanisha Thomas is a prominent travel entrepreneur and certified advisor specializing in inclusive and family travel. After over 20 years in healthcare, she founded Officially Crowned LLC, which includes Officially Crowned Travel, Nashville Flying Dress, Flying Dress Getaways, and Royal Journey Apparel. Recognized as one of Nashville’s top Black travel agents, her Nashville Flying Dress venture was named a “Must Try” experience and a top finalist for the 2024 Best of Music City Community Choice Award. A military spouse and mother of three, Thomas balances her leadership with family life in Nashville, where her son attends Tennessee State University.
SUMMARY: Nashville Pride’s 2024 festival faces a financial crisis with a $300,000 shortfall due to nearly 40% of longtime sponsors withdrawing support, some just before the event. Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s last-minute cancellation of medical staffing added $32,000 in unexpected costs. Rainy weather also hurt attendance during plans to expand the festival. This decline in funding reflects a national trend amid rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment and legislative attacks. Increased security needs have further strained finances. Organizers are seeking community donations, aiming to raise $250,000 by National Coming Out Day, emphasizing that Pride relies on people, not corporate sponsors.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss human smuggling charges in Tennessee, alleging “selective and vindictive prosecution” by the Trump administration after his wrongful deportation to El Salvador. Abrego, who claims he was tortured in a Salvadoran prison, challenges his removal and faces charges linked to a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. His attorneys argue the prosecution is retaliation for his legal fight against deportation and a public smear campaign by officials, including former President Trump. A judge emphasized Abrego’s presumption of innocence. Abrego remains detained, with a trial set for January 27, 2026.
NASHVILLE — Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia are asking a federal judge in Tennessee to dismiss human smuggling charges against him, calling the case a clear example of “selective and vindictive prosecution” by the Trump administration.
In a motion filed late Tuesday, just days ahead of Abrego’s expected pretrial release, the attorneys conceded their argument to dismiss the case is “infrequently made and rarely succeeds.”
“But if there has ever been a case for dismissal on those grounds, this is that case,” they wrote. “The government is attempting to use this case — and this Court — to punish Mr. Abrego for successfully fighting his unlawful removal. That is a constitutional violation of the most basic sort.”
The government has not yet filed a legal response. “The United States’ position is set forth in Mr. McGuire’s statements in court and our pleadings,” a spokesperson for Acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire said in an email Wednesday.
The 35-page petition seeking to dismiss all charges narrates a chain of events that began with Abrego’s detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March, while driving with his son in Maryland, through his deportation days later to a Salvadoran prison. Abrego remained for months in the notorious maximum security CECOT prison, despite the admission by a government attorney he had been sent there in error.
Abrego subsequently said he was tortured while in CECOT.
‘A wide-ranging and unprecedented retribution campaign’
Attorneys for Abrego challenged his removal to El Salvador for lack of due process in a separate lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, where the 29-year-old sheet metal apprentice had been living with his wife and children.
“The government did not take steps to fix its mistake,” his Tennessee lawyers wrote Tuesday. “Instead, in response to his lawsuit — and to the substantial publicity it received — the government undertook a wide-ranging and unprecedented retribution campaign against Mr. Abrego.”
The human smuggling charges brought against Abrego in Tennessee are part of that campaign, his lawyers argued.
A Tennessee grand jury in June returned the indictments for “conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain” and “unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.” Prosecutors contend Abrego participated in a national scheme to move immigrants who entered the United States illegally to points around the country. Abrego, as his attorneys refer to him in legal filings, has pleaded not guilty.
The charges are tied to a 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County, Tenn., where Abrego was pulled over for speeding with nine passengers in the back of his vehicle. Abrego was neither ticketed nor arrested in the stop.
A Department of Homeland Security special agent later testified he was not tasked with investigating the Tennessee traffic stop until April 28 of this year. By then, a Maryland federal judge had ordered the government to facilitate Abrego’s return to the U.S. and the Supreme Court had upheld the decision.
The government returned Abrego to Tennessee to face charges on June 6.
Case draws national scrutiny
The case generated widespread public scrutiny of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown tactics during his initial months in office, which were criticized for undermining due process rights guaranteed to both citizens and noncitizens.
Abrego, a Salvadoran national who entered the United States illegally as a teenager, is subject to a 2019 immigration court order that prohibits the government from deporting him to El Salvador, where he says he faces threats of gang violence.
After his wrongful deportation, administration officials, including President Donald Trump, singled out Abrego in their public comments, calling him a “gangbanger,” “monster,” “illegal predator,” “illegal alien terrorist,” “wife beater,” and “human trafficker.”
Abrego’s attorneys accused the administration of a public smear campaign intended to paper over its embarrassment over his wrongful deportation and retaliate against his legal efforts to assert his due process rights. Abrego has denied gang affiliation.
The administration’s public statements, Abrego’s attorneys argued, bolster their claims that the prosecution against him is retaliatory.
“The unprecedented public pronouncements attacking Mr. Abrego for his successful exercise of constitutional rights by senior cabinet members, leaders of the DOJ, and even the President of the United States, make this the rare case where actual vindictiveness is clear from the record,” they wrote.
Lawyers seek to curb Trump administration comments about the case
Earlier this month, Abrego’s attorneys sought, for a second time, a court order restricting government officials’ remarks about the case as prejudicial and contrary to standard court rules.
In response, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who presides over the Tennessee criminal case, directed all “counsel and those working with counsel” to note in their public communications that Abrego is presumed innocent.
“Our Constitution requires that Abrego is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury,” Crenshaw wrote in his July 31 order.
Separately, in response to Abrego’s attorney’s waiver of the right to a speedy trial, the court set a trial date of Jan. 27.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaking at a July press conference at the Homeland Security facility in Nashville, called Kilmar Abrego Garcia a “monster” and said she hopes a federal judge in the case “will do the right thing” in convicting him. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Abrego remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshalls, who have jurisdiction over pre-trial detainees in federal cases.
Abrego has already been cleared for release pending trial by a Tennessee magistrate, an order placed on hold at the request of his attorneys amid uncertainty over whether federal immigration officials intend to detain or deport him to a “third country.”
Abrego’s attorneys on Tuesday requested the magistrate move forward with releasing him Friday, the day the hold expires.
The attorneys noted a Maryland federal judge has barred the government from taking Abrego into immigration custody and required immigration officials to provide 72-hours written notice before removing him to a third country.
His Tennessee lawyers, Sean Hecker and Rascoe Dean, also wrote they are “retaining a private security firm that has experience providing court-approved pre-trial transportation and security services in criminal cases to transport Mr. Abrego from Tennessee to Maryland upon release.”
The lawyers requested details about the security arrangements be kept under seal “in order to protect Mr. Abrego’s safety.”
A federal magistrate on Wednesday set a tentative hearing for Monday if prosecutors oppose any of the conditions of Abrego’s release sought by his attorneys.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This content reflects a Center-Left bias as it emphasizes criticisms of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, highlighting claims of “selective and vindictive prosecution” and due process concerns. The article gives attention to the legal challenges against the government’s actions and the alleged mistreatment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, portraying his case within a broader context of systemic issues with immigration policy and enforcement under the previous administration. While presenting statements from both sides, the framing and language lean toward skepticism of the government’s motives and underscore questions of justice and human rights, themes often found in center-left reporting.
