Transportainment industry, city leader react to bill that would prevent Nashville from regulating ETVs

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A bill originally written to allow fire trucks to be used as transportainment vehicles has a new amendment that would prevent cities like Nashville from regulating entertainment transportation vehicles (ETVs), and put the regulating power in the state’s hands.

House Bill 2642, filed by House Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), would prevent ETVs, including party buses and sightseeing buses, from municipal regulations if it meets certain requirements. Instead, the Tennessee Department of Transportation would be in charge of regulating ETVs, and cities would only be allowed to levy a tax on ETVs that could not exceed 4%.

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Bryant Kroll, an attorney who represents the owner of Off the Wagon Tours, told News 2 his client supports the bill after dealing with what he calls “arbitrary and capricious behavior” when the Metro’s Transportation Licensing Commission (TLC), would not grant him a permit for his business after he missed the deadline by one hour.

The owner of Off the Wagon Tours was eventually arrested for contempt of court after allegedly continuing to operate his business when a judge ordered him to stop.

Kroll blames part of the issue on the fact that the TLC’s permit application deadline varies every year. Now, the owner of Off the Wagon has to wait for the new application period to open before he can operate his business and make a living.

“Like tax day, everybody knows when taxes are due, but nobody knows when the Transportation Licensing Commission is going to open up for licensing; so Mr. Carney has faced very severe consequences for something that he should have just been able to pay a license for and just be done with it,” Kroll said.

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“The state regulation, this would take a lot of the discretion of who can receive these licenses out of the hands of the board and make it more regulated, so if you pay the fee, you meet the other qualifications, then you can get the license.”

Metro Councilman Jacob Kupin told News 2 he believes the bill came about after the TLC considered cutting the number of permits it issues to ETVs to help with traffic congestion and safety concerns from residents.

Kupin said balancing the party buses’ ability to run their business and his constituents’ quality of life is a difficult task the city is highly equipped to handle.

“I think the challenge is that we’ve got a granular understanding, I believe, of community concerns,” Kupin said. “Not to say the state doesn’t, but I think that would be more of a challenge. I know there’s some concern that this bill would yield more flexibility to the ETV’s and by doing that, potentially create more of a problem.”

Kupin will continue to work with both the party bus companies and residents to find a happy medium, hoping the regulation power will remain with the city.

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“My commitment is to the livability of residents,” Kupin said. “It’s important that as we go from 5 to 10 to 20 to 30 residents in the downtown core, that you can live, that you can work, that you can exist in this space, so that commitment is there, but I also want to make sure we don’t run into the state preemption issue, and I think there is a commonality and a way to solve this, and I’m excited to see the progress we can make.”

There is not currently a date set for the amended bill to be presented to state lawmakers.

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