REP. GREEN BACKTRACKS
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STADIUM GROUNDBREAKING
MARCH 7, 2024 | VOLUME 36 | NUMBER 9
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Bills regulating child care cost, health insurance for kids meet demise BY HANNAH HERNER
An NTSB investigator photographs the charred wreckage of a single-engine plane on March 5, one day after it crashed in West Nashville beside I-40, killing five people on board. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS
Five killed in Monday night plane crash along I-40 BY MATT MASTERS
Two adults and three children were killed on Monday evening when a singleengine airplane crashed along Interstate 40 just past the Charlotte Pike exit. The Piper PA-28-32-300-T turbocharged aircraft was registered in Canada and departed Ontario, Canada, on March 4, before stopping in Erie, Pennsylvania, then in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, before heading to its next scheduled destination, Nashville’s John C. Tune Airport, before crashing just three miles from the airport around 7:45 p.m. Investigators have not identified any of the victims but did confirm that they were all Canadian citizens who departed Ontario together. Some personal effects were recovered, and they are working with the Canadian embassy to confirm their identities and notify next of kin. According to Nashville Fire Department spokesperson Kendra Loney, witnesses to the crash said that the airplane did “implode on impact,” with emergency crews arriving to
“heavy flames and fire and smoke in the area.” No one on the ground was injured and no road vehicles or infrastructure on the ground were damaged. A section of I-40 East was shut down and reopened at approximately 2:42 a.m. while MNPD, NFD, Tennessee Highway Patrol and Nashville International Airport Police secured the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are leading the investigation. Audio purportedly of the radio communications between the unidentified pilot and an air traffic controller recorded the plane’s final transmission in which the pilot can be heard saying, “My engine turned off. I’m at 1,600 [feet]. I’m going to be landing … I don’t know where.” “For reasons unknown the aircraft descended and approached John C. Tune Airport and passed overhead at 2500 feet,” NTSB air safety investigator Aaron McCarter told reporters on Tuesday. “The >> PAGE 2
Of Sen. Charlane Oliver’s slate of three child care-related bills, one is left standing after a Senate Health and Welfare Committee meeting Wednesday. Two bills aimed at the Department of Human Services’ Smart Steps child care voucher program, which subsidizes the cost of care for low-income families, met their demise. Senate Bill 2207 would have reduced or eliminated copays for those making under 150 percent of the federal poverty level and capped fees at 7 percent of household income for families above the federal poverty line. Another bill (SB2064/HB2233) would have allowed more families into the program, increasing the income ceiling to 100 percent of the state median income from 85 percent. It failed but did garner bipartisan support from Sen. Becky Massey (R-Knoxville) and Sen. Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City). Oliver and DHS were asked by chairperson Crowe to have a discussion outside of the committee about SB1805/ HB1962, which would require DHS to recalculate its reimbursement amounts for Smart Steps based on a cost estimation model rather than the current market rate model. Area child care providers testified that the state’s voucher program falls short of the amount needed to keep such centers running and properly staffed. Glen Leven Day School Executive Director Debbie Ferguson testified that 10 of her 26 employees had resigned over the past two years. As pandemic funds dry up, the school has raised tuition to account for higher costs for newly required DHS training, offering staff a living wage and benefits, and other expenses. “I appreciate you considering this opportunity to find relief for parents,” Ferguson said. “They’re really stressed about how they’re going to pay the bills and we have no choice but to roll those costs over.” DHS representatives testified against the bill, expressing concern that private payers, those who aren’t on the certificate
program, would be pushed out of care if the reimbursement is too high. “The [market rate] model looks at the cost for the parent,” Oliver explained. “That cost is driven a lot by what the private provider charges. This [cost estimation] model looks at the cost for the provider and how much it takes to run the operation. The difference is the market rate study asks the providers what they are currently charging, so it is a look back and takes historical data. It does not take into account current market fluctuations, inflation, all of the things it takes to run a day care.” Another bill (SB2063/HB2232) is also still making its way through the legislature, but was rolled two weeks on Wednesday. It would create a pilot program to study wages for child care workers.
Sen. Charlane Oliver PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS
Oliver is also proposing a new tax on transpotainment vehicles that would create a state fund to match local government funding for early childhood >> PAGE 2
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