Editing Tennessee General Assembly (section)

==Powers==

===Legislation===
Tennessee legislators' objectives are to enact, amend, and repeal Tennessee Laws. Powers specific to Tennessee legislators include appropriation of money, the levy and collection of taxes, and the right to authorize counties and towns to tax.<ref name="About the Tennessee Legislature">{{Cite web|url=http://www.capitol.tn.gov/about/|title=About the Tennessee Legislature|website=www.capitol.tn.gov|access-date=2019-03-24}}</ref> The General Assembly is recognized by the state constitution as the supreme legislative authority of the state. It is the General Assembly's responsibility to pass a budget for the functioning of the state government. Each year, the [[Governor of Tennessee|governor]] outlines their budget priorities in the [[State of the State address]]. The Assembly, in a joint session, is present for the speech. Bills may originate in either the House or Senate, and can be either a general or local bill. A general bill affects the state, while a local bill affects a town or county. A local bill must be passed in the state legislature and ratified by the local area it affects.<ref name="About the Tennessee Legislature"/> The Tennessee Constitution states that after a bill has been rejected by the General Assembly, no bill with the same substance can be passed into law during the same session. The Tennessee Constitution states that each bill must be passed on three separate days in both houses. In order for a new bill to pass it requires a constitutional majority.

===Appointments===
According to the state constitution, three positions in state government collectively referred to as the "Constitutional Officers" — the [[Tennessee Secretary of State|secretary of state]], [[Tennessee State Treasurer|state treasurer]], and the [[Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury|Comptroller of the Treasury]] — are selected by the General Assembly in [[joint session]], where each member of the General Assembly is afforded a single vote. Each office is awarded to the first candidate to receive a majority of the votes (67 of 132).

The General Assembly selects the seven members of the State Election Commission. It selects four members from the majority party (the one controlling the majority of the 132 total seats) and three members from the minority party.

===Gubernatorial election dispute===
A contested gubernatorial election is supposed to be decided by a joint session of the General Assembly, according to [[statutory law]]. The General Assembly is also required to decide the result of the gubernatorial election by joint session according to the state constitution in the event of an exact tie in the popular vote, an extremely unlikely election result.

===Amending the State Constitution===
{{Main|Tennessee State Constitution}}
The General Assembly can propose [[constitutional amendment|amendment]]s to the state constitution, but only through one of the two available time-consuming processes:

====Legislative initiative====
For the legislature to propose amendments to the state constitution directly, an amendment must first be passed by an absolute majority of the membership of each house during one term of the Assembly. Then, during the next General Assembly term, each house must pass the amendment again, this time by a two-thirds majority.

The amendment must then be put on the statewide ballot, but only at a time when an election for governor is also being held. The amendment to be passed must receive over half of the total votes cast in the gubernatorial election in order to be [[ratification|ratified]] and come into effect.

The 1870 constitution of Tennessee had never been amended in this manner until 1998, when the "Victims' Rights Amendment" was added. A similar process was used in 2002 to enact the state [[lottery]].

Two amendments proposed by the General Assembly were presented to voters on the 2006 ballot. In 2005 the "[[Tennessee Marriage Protection Amendment]]," specifying that only marriages between a man and a woman could be legally recognized in the state, was approved for submission to the voters in 2006. The [[ACLU]] had previously challenged the validity of the amendment by asserting that a constitutional obligation to publicly advertise the amendment had not been satisfied. However, on February 23, 2006, [[Davidson County, Tennessee|Davidson County]] [[Court of Chancery|Chancellor]] Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled that the proposed amendment would be on the ballot in 2006. Both that amendment and an amendment authorizing exemption of [[senior citizens]] from [[property tax]] increases were approved by voters in November 2006.

In 2010, voters approved an amendment providing a right to hunt and fish within state regulations.

====Constitutional convention====
The other method of amending the state constitution, and the one used for all amendments prior to 1998, is for the General Assembly to put on the ballot the question of whether a limited constitutional convention should be called for the purpose of considering amendments to certain specified provisions of the constitution.

If the voters approve this in a statewide election, they then, at the next statewide election, elect delegates to this convention. This body then meets (in the House chamber of the Tennessee State Capitol) and makes its recommendations. These recommendations can be voted on in any election, either one specially called or in conjunction with other statewide elections, and need only pass by a [[Majority|simple majority]] of those casting votes.

This method cannot be employed more often than once every six years.