Jackson City Mayor Scott Conger’s plan to make Jackson the first city in the nation to allow bitcoin as a payment option for city employees seems to have hit a major snag, as the state senate passed an amendment to a bill prohibiting local government from “paying, compensating, awarding or remitting funds” in the form of cryptocurrency.
“(The bill) is a bit of a hurdle for us,” Conger said. “Talk about small government and not wanting government overreach. And now we have government overreach via the state government telling local governments what contracts they’re allowed to enter into.”
The amendment, added to bill SB 535 on March 4, 2022, “requires local governments to get the written approval from the treasurer of the state of Tennessee to enter into a third party contract to provide options for those payroll conversions,” Conger said.
“It’s rough,” he said, adding to his statements on twitter that the state government does not “understand the trend lines” of the value of cryptocurrency.
Conger continually reiterates the fact that he was “never intending to pay individuals directly” in bitcoin, but rather simply make it an option for city employees to utilize if they wanted.
More: City employees could see cryptocurrency payroll conversion options next year
“We were never intending to pay individuals directly,” he said. “It was going to be a third party option to do like deferred compensation. I guess they don’t like competition with traditional investment opportunities.”
Conger pitched the idea last year with the intention of allowing city employees to further diversify their incomes, as well as make Jackson more attractive to tech industries on the heels of expected industry booms following Blue Oval City and Georgia-Pacific.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us as a city to move the conversation forward — not just in this one instance of cryptocurrency payments, but how we can look at the big picture and set our goals high as to what we want Jackson to look like in 10 years,” Conger previously said.
Mumpower’s letter of rebuke, which came shortly after Conger’s interview with the New York Times regarding cryptocurrency, and shortly before the amendment was added to the state bill, warned Conger that “such direct payments could run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act and other state wage laws.”
Mumpower alluded to the rapidly changing landscape of cryptocurrency in his letter, saying that based on “significant fluctuation in the cryptocurrency market in recent days,” his office would “therefore urge you to remember your fiduciary responsibility to the citizens and to govern accordingly as you make such decisions in the future.”
The amendment has passed the senate and now awaits Governor Bill Lee’s signature, as of April 5th, 2022.
Where does that leave Conger’s plan?
“We’re going to focus on education for our employees, and give them the opportunities to look at (bitcoin) themselves, and not give them a structured avenue approach that we were planning to,” Conger said. “Which would’ve made it easier for our employees, but we’ll just have to focus on the education portion.
“I will not stop. We will lead the way for bitcoin.”
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