The Senator went over “how taxpayer dollars are spent.”

TOP PHOTO: Tennessee Senator Ken Yager guest spoke at the Campbell County Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday at noon at the LaFollette Methodist Church. Yager gave a brief update on the state budget.

Rotarian Jonathan Finley with E.E. Hill Insurance introduced Senator Ken Yager at Tuesday’s Rotary Club luncheon.

By Charlotte Underwood 

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- State Senator Ken Yager guest spoke at Tuesday’s Campbell County Rotary Club meeting.

Rotarian Jonathan Finley introduced Senator Yager, saying it was people like the senator and State Representative Dennis Powers that made Tennessee a “great state to live and retire in.”

“Senator Ken Yager serves nine counties…His faith in God is a crucial part of who he is…. He has spent over 47 years in public service, he started as a teacher in Harriman City Schools, and also served as Roane County Executive for six terms. Senator Yager was first elected to the Tennessee Senate in 2006… Senator Yager was instrumental in securing funding for the TCAT system Master Plan 1 for $1 billion dollars. Of that, $55.5 million resulted in the construction of two state-of-the-art buildings for TCAT Jacksboro, which doubled our physical training space. Thank you for that Ken,”  Finley said.

Yager thanked Campbell County for their support in his recent primary, saying that he received 87-percent of the vote in the county and what his “largest percentage vote” in the all the counties in his district.

“The people of Campbell County have always been wonderful to me, and I appreciate and treasure the friendships I have here,” Yager said.

The Senator gave an update on what’s happening in Nashville, specifically with the budget.

“We passed the budget … it was a balanced budget at $52 billion dollars. The budget process is an interesting process, and we’re already working on the next one; that’s how you get stuff done for your local counties, you start early,” Yager said.

Yager also serves on Senate Finance Committee and shared that he was proud of the $441 million dollar business tax cut that will be spread across businesses in the state of Tennessee.

“I’m sure there are some in Campbell County that will benefit from that. I’m proud that we have that mold, that we want to cut taxes, we don’t want to raise taxes, we want to cut them and we’re able to do that because we run the state efficiently. In the last 10 years, we have returned about $2 billion back to the people … in tax cuts,” Yager said.

He also said the budget had record appropriations for education, both secondary and higher education.

He said that the state was also working on getting funding to fix roads in rural counties as well from a road bill that was passed several years ago.

“It’s going to get state into the counties, into Campbell County to fix some of these rural roads; the wheels of government sometimes move slowly, but that money is in place and on its way, we will see some construction start hopefully this year,” Yager said.

The Senator went over “how taxpayer dollars are spent.”

“The single largest expenditure in the state is Tenn care and the second largest expenditure is education and I’m sorry, but I would like to see education number one, we’re still working on that,” Yager said.

The third largest expenditure is social services, not including Tenncare and fourth is transportation with roads. Corrections is the fifth largest expenditure,” Yager said, adding that “was troubling to him.”

According to Yager, the state spends well over a billion dollars to incarcerate people and that the state and local the government pay for about 30,000 inmates to be incarcerated.

Yager said he wanted to see “that corrections budget come down.”

According to Yager, Governor Lee has “made some great strides” for programs to provide training for inmates and individuals in county jails to “have a more productive life” after they are released.

Something in this year’s budget that Yager is “proud of and excited about” is the $1 billion dollars in capital expenditures for Tennessee College of Applied Technology campuses across the state, including $2 million locally for TCAT Jacksboro. 

“We have really been able to provide funding to different programs, capital maintenance, and equipment for TCATs across the state. We have come to the realization that the TCATs offer a unique education experience where you can get an education in a short time, get out and go work …The TCATs have really come of age in Tennessee, largely because of the recognition of Governor Lee and the funding we have been able to put into that. I’m proud of being a part of that appropriation,” Yager said.

Yager briefly touched on upcoming issues for this year’s legislature, saying the “educational scholarship issue also sometimes called vouchers, will come back around again.”

“I think that bill will come back. The issue I want to talk to the governor about is how to protect some of these smaller counties… I have two of the smallest counties in my district and losing even one student will hurt their budget…I will be talking with the governor about how we can protect some of these smaller counties…There is growing support for this program here in this county and I listen to my constituents,….but need to find a way to protect these counties that are concerned about that, but that will be a dominant issue in the legislature,” Yager said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-09/04/2024-6AM)

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