It was a busy Tuesday throughout the state for U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander.
While touring the region, the Senator stopped by the First Tennessee Development District office in Johnson City and met with the eight county mayors and local officials that make up the organization.
Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey was on hand for the meeting and liked what he heard from Republican Senator’s trip to the region.
“(Alexander) is a great institute for everyone in East Tennessee because he’s a champion of state’s rights,” Mayor Humphrey said. “He’s doing everything he can to bring the power of the legislature here locally. We really appreciate him taking the time out of his busy schedule to come out to the development district, work with the mayors and give us his input and feedback on what all is actually going on in Washington.”
Various items were discussed during the meeting, including the upcoming overtime law that goes into effect December 1.
“I think all the issues we discussed today are relevant to Carter County,” Mayor Humphrey added. “Especially with the federal wage and hour law that takes effect December 1. Our County Commission has already taken some steps toward that to comply raising the minimum salary of some of our exempt employee.”
The Commission has been working to combat the overtime rule, with their recent action to raise the pay of employees in director positions to $47,476.
The action does not apply to Emergency Management Agency directors, which was a point of discussion during Monday’s County Commission meeting when the officials voted on the measure to increase EMA Director Gary Smith’s salary from $32,781.43 to $47,476.00. The item was voted down during the meeting.
Mayor Humphrey told the Elizabethton Star Tuesday that the Commission did vote to move his salary to $37,500 – an item that occurred following the paper’s press deadline Monday night.
Along with the overtime ruling, Alexander also stated he is working on ways to address the recent concerns cited from Obamacare.
“We should never pass a big bill like this in a partisan way,” Alexander said of Obamacare. “Social security, civil rights, Medicare was a bipartisan bill. Obamacare was a partisan bill. Whoever is the next president, whoever is the new Congress … we’re going to have to work together and fix this crisis because people are hurting. We can’t have Tennesseans that can’t afford to buy health insurance because the federal government is defining it that way and it drives all the insurance companies out of the market.”
Mayor Humphrey seconded the Senator’s sentiments.
“The Obamacare it is just a massive concern for us because with healthcare projected to go up 40 to 60 percent next year, it impacts all Carter Countians,” he added. “Everyone across the state, everyone across the nation …I’m glad to hear the Senator is taking measures to counter the program to make things fair and more comparable for healthcare.”
Ways to improve the economy were also discussed, according to the Senator.
“We talked about the Marketplace Fairness Act,” Alexander said. “Which Governor Ramsey and Governor Haslam show support for it and I introduced. It would allow cities and the state to collect the sales tax from out-of-state sellers in the same way they collect it from in-state sellers. When people who already owe the tax don’t pay it, it just drives up the property tax that hurts small business in places like Rogersville, Johnson City or Greeneville.”
The recent presidential election was also brought up during Tuesday’s meeting with Alexander being asked about his opinions on how things are panning out with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“I learned a long time ago that people didn’t elect me to tell them how to vote,” Alexander said. “I’m a Republican and I support the Republican ticket.”
The Senator added he didn’t like the way this current election has played out so far.
“I think both candidates have driven this presidential election race down to about as a low a level as it can go,” he said. “What I’m talking to Tennesseans about is my job as a United States Senator. To fix Obamacare, fix the overtime rule, try to reduce the debt and to talk about how we can fix No Child Left Behind and eliminate the Common Core mandate and restore local control of schools.”