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from: BlountViews

State Sen. Finney's constituent survey

Submitted by R. Neal on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 13:56.

If you're reading this, you probably got State Sen. Raymond Finney's annual constituent preference survey in the mail. If not, it's also in today's Maryville Daily Times. If you don't have that, it's online at Senator Finney Listens.

Sen. Finney (R) represents the 8th Senate District which includes Blount County and Sevier County. I don't agree with most of Sen. Finney's politics, but I have always given him an A+ for constituent outreach. I can't really blame him for the fact that his views represent the majority view in his district. Instead, it is a challenge for the more progressive types in Blount County to educate voters on a better way forward.

The survey has an introduction with some background on several issues that will be before the Tennessee General Assembly, which just resumed session this week. He asks for your opinion on them, and shares his views on most.

A couple of things I found interesting:

• Last year, Sen. Finney said he would vote against the AT&T statewide cable franchise bill, but AT&T withdrew it for lack of support so it never made it to the floor for a vote. In this latest survey, Sen. Finney seems to have reversed his previous position and now appears to support it. There were some minor changes regarding local control of right of way, but it's essentially the same bill. It's a bad bill that will eliminate local control of cable franchises, regulate local franchise fees, restrict or eliminate customer service and quality standards, restrict or eliminate local build-out requirements, and threaten local public, educational, and government (PEG) cable access. (Note: his survey question on this is biased, because it implies that without statewide contracts local governments will only have one provider. There is nothing stopping AT&T or anyone else from submitting proposals, and in fact they have been invited to do so.)

• Sen. Finney appears to be for the Pellissippi Parkway extension as a way to address Alcoa Highway traffic problems. The survey question on this offers only three options: Build the PPE or build the bypass or do nothing. There should be a fourth option (which I believe TDOT already proposed as the least expensive) to "fix Alcoa Highway."

Anyway, be sure to complete Sen. Finney's survey if you haven't already. Make sure the Blount County progressive voice is heard!

P.S. Here are the results from Sen. Finney's 2007 survey and his 2006 survey.