Kerry Roberts

Senator Kerry Roberts (R): District 25, Chairman of the Senate Government Operations Committee. Senator Roberts is one of our champions of liberty. He knows his constitutional principles and applies that knowledge in his decisions. We find him to be one of the few dependable members of the senate.

Senator Roberts sponsored two TLRC bills that were chosen for scoring:

SB1088/HB0567 – Roberts/Ragan – The District Attorney must disapprove any emergency rule that doesn’t meet statutory requirements (passed).

SB1534/HB0966 – Carringer /Roberts – Elections: prohibits private or corporate funding for state and local elections, eliminating the possible influencing of the process in favor of one candidate or party over the others (passed).

Roberts co-sponsored another two of our selected bills:

SB0474/HB0855 – Powers/Powers – All businesses are essential in emergencies; no discrimination allowed (passed).

SJR2 – Kelsey – Puts Right-to-Work into our Tennessee constitution, making it much more difficult to rescind (passed).

Senator Roberts, lost leadership points because of one bill he supported that TLRC opposed:

SB0736/HB0141 – Johnson/Lamberth (a Governor’s bill with which we take issue) – Special tax exemption for the film and video industry which was supported by a large majority of the General Assembly (passed). TLRC does not support special carve-outs for cherry-picked industries. The government should not be picking winners and losers.

But he cancelled that loss by being the only member of the senate to not support this bill:

SB0783/HB1204 – Massey/Zachary – Authorizes a special sales and use tax allocation to finance Randy Boyd’s Baseball stadium in Knoxville at the expense of Tennessee taxpayers. Boyd is a mega millionaire (passed).

Media stories on the subject:
Boyd Sports to Profit from Events Held at Taxpayer-Funded Stadium – Tennessee Star

Member of Senate Committee Considering Legislation for Randy Boyd’s Taxpayer-Funded Baseball Stadium is Employee of Law Firm That Could Benefit From Bill’s Passage – Tennessee Star

Five Sponsors of Bill Enabling Randy Boyd’s Taxpayer-Funded Baseball Stadium Received More Than $90,000 in Campaign Funds from Individuals with Ties to the Project – Tennessee Star

TLRC opposed those bills on fairness, constitutional, and fiscal-responsibility principles. Senator Roberts sponsored forty-five bills that were not sunset bills, twenty of which passed into law, two of which TLRC scored. To access, go here.

We do not need more laws; we need better laws, and enforcement of the laws already on the books. The grassroots are looking for courage in our legislators: courage to stand up for constitutional principles over pressure from leadership and paid lobbyists. Senator Roberts is that warrior. He represents his constituents very well.

We are at a crisis point and now is the time to stand for the people instead of special interests, the wealthy, and well-connected, and against those who assume power through corruption and coercion. If we do not, we could very well lose our republic and our liberties.