NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In four days, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam will retain a title he hasn't held in more than 15 years: private citizen. The popular Republican wraps up two terms in the statehouse. Before that, he served two terms as Mayor of Knoxville. NewsChannel 5's Rhori Johnston sat down with him for a one-on-one interview, in which he talked about his biggest successes, regrets, and what's next for him as a citizen.
Eight years ago, Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam was sworn in as governor, after easily defeating Democrat Mike McWherter in the General Election. Similar to his predecessor Phil Bredesen, Haslam was seen as a moderate businessman who would focus on education and economic growth.
He said navigating the never-ending road blocks he faced in government was one of the tough aspects of the job.
"In government, there's a thousand points of 'no!' you know, so you've got to get a legislature to go along with you, you have constitutional officers who have certain statutory authority, and you have to learn to operate in that environment and you're doing it all in a very public world," said Haslam. "We haven't always gotten it right, but we've tried to say you know what's the right thing to do, whether it's taking care of folks with intellectual disabilities or addressing the opiate crisis, or figuring out how we're going to pay for roads in Nashville."
The political road for Haslam was paved with a Republican super majority in the legislature - something he agrees, helped drive his agenda.
"I'm the first Republican governor in history to have a Republican legislature," he said. "That's primarily meant we passed a lot of big things from you know tenure reform and tort reform to $570 million dollars of tax cuts to new ways to address worker's comp issues there's a lot of big legislation including how we hire and promote employees dealing with civil service that we were able to pass that you could have never done with a split legislature."
Despite that advantage, Haslam didn't always find agreeable Republicans in the House and Senate, especially when it came to expanding Medicaid in Tennessee.
"I think, to be honest with you, the reason is it's still so identified with Obamacare, which you know is still very unpopular in Tennessee."
During Haslam's tenure, Tennessee's schools and students made real strides, with improved standards and test scores. Still, he admits, continued problems with the TNReady standardized testing shouldn't have happened.
"To me, it's been a major disappointment, and I know for all of our teachers and parents and students out there it's been a major frustration."
But the Governor says that frustration has led to improvements in how the state evaluates potential vendors. Indeed, the outsourcing of government services to private contractors is something Haslam embraced -- despite criticism, and claims of cronyism.
"I still think our job in government is to provide the very best service for the very lowest cost, that's what we should fundamentally do, and if there's things that other people can do better than we can, then we should do that."
As Bill Haslam begins to reflect on his eight years in office, his biggest regret may come as a surprise.
"I underestimated the job of governor. I didn't know what a big deal it was, and I don't mean the sense of how people treat you and all that, but in a sense of how much you could do."
As for his accomplishments, and what he's most proud of, Haslam is a bit more politically philosophical.
"I really think we have had an administration that's focused on getting to the right answer, and not to a political answer or our own answer."
Governor-elect Bill Lee will replace Haslam. His inauguration will be Saturday morning.
