Kent Calfee

Rep. Kent Calfee (R) serves as a Member, Business and Utilities Subcommittee, Cities and Counties Subcommittee, Commerce Committee, Government Operations Committee, Local Government Committee, and as Vice Chair, Joint Education, Health and General Welfare committee.

Representative Calfee is a pleasant man to know but not very vociferous or engaging in committee or on the house floor. He is not a committee chairman, so we have little to go on other than his voting record and the sort of bills he sponsors.

His vote score at 96% is above average. His only mistake was supporting a bill giving special tax-exemptions to the film and video industry. He co-sponsored fewer of our key bills this year (five) than he did last year (eight). That cost him a few points, as we award points for sponsoring and co-sponsoring freedom-supporting bills.

Rep. Calfee had an impressive 50% of his bills passed this year, but he only sponsored 10 bills, which is considerably below average. Two of those bills were local for Rockwood and did not impact Tennesseans at large. One of the bills was the “Student’s Right to Know Act” which, as introduced, would require our state colleges and universities to research and compile data to inform students and prospective students of job opportunity status in the different fields of study. This was later amended to be permissive rather than mandatory, which takes it down a few notches in importance.

Calfee lost points by voting for HB703, a bill that will provide a multi-million-dollar state funding grant for a proposed minor league baseball stadium for the Tennessee Smokies, a double-A team which is owned by University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd. Boyd and his wife Jenny are mega-multi-millionaires; why are Tennessee tax-payers financing his baseball enterprise?