Murfreesboro Lawmaker Questions Haslam Secret Fund

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Sen. Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro cited state money spent on problematic economic development deals, including a shuttered polysilicon plant in Clarksville, a West Tennessee solar farm that still isn’t operational, and a facility to study converting switchgrass to fuel that has been moved to Iowa.

This in response to fellow Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposal to earmark $30 million for an undisclosed economic development project in Tennessee.

“We continue year after year, and even going back to the prior administration, laying out large chunks of money for what we think might occur,” Ketron said. “And they don’t seem to materialize.”

State Finance Commissioner Larry Martin declined to elaborate on the development prospect other than to describe it as an “exciting project” during a Senate Finance Committee meeting.

Ketron said he was uncomfortable voting for the new project on the basis of state officials saying, “Trust me, it’s going to be good.”

Martin said the Haslam is “not yet prepared to disclose who this is, but I can tell you that it has a very good payback and a strong return on investment.”

“This one they feel very confident about,” he said.

It should be noted that that part of this is also backlash to the over 900 million dollars in construction, and incentives to the VW plant, including the “Volkswagen Chattanooga” that stretches over 2 football fields.This has become more in light of the recent federal fraud charges over false emissions testing and unionization efforts.

A spokesman at the State TDEC says that there is a “clawback provision” on the books since 2012 to re-coup investments made into companies that don’t fulfill their promises. No examples were given.

So we want to know:

Should The Public and Lawmakers have specifics on ANY requested money for State business projects.
Yes
No