Ken Marrero (Blue Collar Muse, The Tennessee ConserVoliance, American Liberty Alliance) arranged a blogger meet with Tn GOP Governor candidate Bill Haslam yesterday afternoon.

The meeting started with Mr. Haslam giving us a short biography talking about his family and his time as Mayor of Knoxville. I admit to not being terribly familiar with the Mayor and his performance as Mayor in Knoxville.

Mr. Haslam pointed out his key points in the campaign were:
1). Anti-income tax/against raising the sales tax
2). Job creation
3). Education

Once Mr. Haslam was finished with his intro the blogger questions started. My report won’t be covering all the questions and answers.

Question – Would Mr. Haslam be in favor of repealing the Hall Tax?
Answer – If there was revenue to replace the loss of the taxes.
It was discussed that the tax collection from the Hall tax was only $93 million per year. Someone mentioned that local governments also receive a portion of this tax collection so how would this be handled? Since this is a tax on interest income I would think the appeal to seniors and people of wealth the elimination of this tax would be another draw for people to Tennessee.

How about going throught the TCPR Pork Report? I don’t know what the state is doing owning golf courses which annually run at a deficit. Mr. Haslam didn’t seem to be too keen on the state selling or shutting down the golf courses. His response to this suggestion was to look at the finances of the golf courses, make the operations at least a break even endeavor. I’m not buying it.

Interspersed with the Hall Tax discussion the Copeland Cap (says that spending can not increase more than the increase in personal income. The problem is that it can be over-ridden by a simple majority so its basically useless….) came up. I was disappointed that Mr. Haslam was not familiar with this spending limitation on the growth of government in Tennessee. His response was he didn’t know the details but he would abide by the Copeland Cap.

Question – What was Mr. Haslam’s position on Judicial Selection.
Answer - Mr. Haslam is not in favor of judicial elections in Tennessee. He is concerned about interest group influences and would be in favor of changing the state Constitution. Mr. Haslam would prefer to see a process where the Governor nominates candidates, then the House and Senate would have an approval process similar to what we see at the Federal level.

The topic of education came up and there were a number of bloggers interjecting comments and questions. Hopefully, Kay Brooks will do a recap on this topic since Kay “is” the Blogger Education Czarina. Here’s my few notes on this topic:

** Mr. Haslam does not see the merits of universal Pre-K. Affordability and effectiveness are in question.
** Mr. Haslam would like to look at reforming tenure for teachers
** Mr. Haslam mentioned a McKinley Study which states that “results do not correlate to dollars spent”
** There was a discussion on the curriculum of social engineering in schools. Also, schools need to return to the teaching of basics.
** Promoting vocational vs college to high school students.
** Mr. Haslam believes “everything has to be outcome based in education”
** Accountability is the missing link in schools and with the 400 pound gorilla – teacher’s unions

John Harris of the Tn Firearms Association then addressed the recent gun legislation passed. I’m not sure I got a read on Mr. Haslam’s position on this legislation. Most of my notes refer to issues and positions from John Harris, not Mr. Haslam.

Question – What were you thinking or hoping to accomplish by joining the Mayor Bloomberg (NYC) illegal gun group? (okay, I asked this question and didn’t have the official name of the group)
Answer – Mr. Haslam first told us this was a US Conference of Mayors against illegal guns. He was concerned about crime in the inner city and this concern still stands.

I then asked him why he retained his membership in this group for so many years. He joined the group in 2006 and didn’t decide to leave the group until January of 2009. Mr. Haslam meandered a bit in his response, so I don’t think I really received a response. As a further note, I’m not sure I understand the notion of “illegal guns”, guns are inanimate. It’s the criminals who illegally obtain and use guns. This is just another pro gun control and anti 2nd Amendment group I think.

To find more about this group here’s some links:

http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2009/01/07/haslam-distances-himself-bloomberg/

http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2006/10/18/nothing_but_internet_-_again/

Question – Does Mr. Haslam believe it would be his job to “protect” Tennessee’s borders? This question was regarding the issue of illegal aliens.
Answer - Mr. Haslam believes the governor can be effective by preventing employers from hiring illegals.

This question then morphed to the final topic:

Final question from John Harris – Where will you go as Governor on the 10th Amendment?
Answer – Mr. Haslam responded this was a major problem and the federal government was out of control.
Once again, there wasn’t much substance in the response and Mr. Haslam seemed to be meandering in his response to this question.

I appreciated Mr. Haslam meeting with the bloggers in Middle Tennessee, he will be repeating this with the bloggers in East Tn and West Tn. I found Mr. Haslam to be friendly and fairly forthcoming in his responses. He does tend to be a bit fidgety which can be distracting but we had around an hour and a half of his time squeezed into his busy summer campaign schedule.

Bill Haslam, 2010 Tn Election, Governor Tennessee, John Harris, Tn Firearms Association, Kay Brooks, Tn Conservoliance