Unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments are addressed by statute. In addition, many state legislatures have adopted unfunded mandate statutes or, in some cases, constitutional amendments to protect local governments from unfunded mandates.
However, in Tennessee, the only protection afforded local government from the state imposed unfunded mandates is provided by the internal rules of the state Senate and House. In short, our protections are less permanent and may be waived, ignored or eliminated faily easily.
There seems to have been an increasing number of bills and administrative proposals put forth that would pass on costs to local government. In addistion, the Senate and House now have different rules with regard to unfunded mandates on local government.
Therefore, the TML Executive Committee recommends that the Board approve the following directive to the staff:
- Conduct analysis of the legislative and administrative porposals to determin whether the perception of an increase in the number of unfunded mandates is supported by the numbers; and
- If perception is borne out by the analysis, then review the unfunded measures adopted by the federal government and other states and present draft legislation for the Board's consideration.
