Governor Lee is a seventh generation Tennessean and the 50th Governor of Tennessee. This chat was in front of a live audience at Bitcoin Park during our annual Nashville Energy and Mining Summit in January.
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(00:11) Governor Lee's Journey and Inspiration
(03:33) Tennessee's Transformation and Innovation
(09:10) Energy Policy and Nuclear Innovation
(15:42) Tax Policy and Economic Growth
(19:28) Why Move to Tennessee?
(21:17) Educational Freedom and Future Plans
[00:00:00]
ODELL:
Can we have a huge round of applause for governor Lee? Thank you. Thank you, sir. So governor, it's your second time at Bitcoin Park. Welcome back.
[00:00:15] Governor Bill Lee:
Thank you. This is a a little more even maybe a packed more packed room than last time, but, I loved hearing from where all this audience has come. It's very exciting to us in Tennessee when we get to host people from around the country and the world. So thank you for coming.
[00:00:35] ODELL:
Wonderful. So I thought an interesting place to start is, you were born you were born here, well, in Franklin, 1959 on a ranch. How did that shape your life and and bring you to the place you are today?
[00:00:52] Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah. My family is a seventh generation. I'm a seventh generation. So my it cool story is that the guy, Braxton Lee, the pioneer that came from Virginia to Tennessee and settled on the banks of the Cumberland River happened to settle in 1796. That's the year Tennessee was created. So my family's been here ever since. We're in the cattle business and in the I'm a mechanical engineer. We're we're in the engineering and and mechanical services business. I was before I changed jobs. And, so I grew up not far from here and went to engineering school, got involved in a family business, got involved in understanding the government's role in how it can be a hindrance or help.
Actually, you know, I I lived a really great life. Wife, kids, farm, Tennessee, doesn't get any better. My wife was killed. I I got I reevaluated my life and what it was about. Got involved in nonprofit work and inner city kids and Haiti and Africa and Mexico and how do you live your life to the fullest. And that led to inner city public education policy or criminal justice reform prison policy. And one thing led to another, and I thought, you know what? What the heck? I should run for governor and, and see if we can make a difference. So that's why I'm sitting here.
[00:02:30] ODELL:
It's a really incredibly inspiring story. I was, trying to do a little bit of research before this interview, and I was just amazed about your life path, and and what you've been through and what you've overcome and and and how you have improved Tennessee. You know, a little bit about myself. I moved here with my family about four years ago. And I was a crazy person, so I started Bitcoin Park with Rod seven months later. And as you can see, the momentum in Tennessee has been absolutely massive. It's hard for me to imagine what Nashville and Tennessee was like in the sixties.
And I'm kinda curious from your perspective, like, how you see the progress that has been made. How like, have there been have there been mistakes? Is what's the progress? Like, where are we today, Tennessee, sixty years later, versus, the town you grew up in?
[00:03:33] Governor Bill Lee:
I have thought about that. Obviously, when you're in my position, you think about the transition of your state. So in the sixties, when I was a kid, I I always tell people we we had one building that was taller than, you know, five stories or something. The Life And Casualty Building, I think, was built in maybe '57 or '59 or something like that. And we had this one skyscraper for twenty years, and that's what Downtown Nashville was to me growing up. So the transformation's been remarkable. But, for some unique reason, and I'm not sure what what it is, but Tennessee has had a kind of a long history of very innovative thinkers and people, even from some of the, you know, original founders.
And and the way that translate out in my sort of adult lifehood, life has been I mean, when you think about companies like Hospital Corporation of America, there was a the HCA was a business launched in Nashville that transformed the health care industry, became the largest hospital owned company in the world, had hospitals all over the world, and just really transformed the way health care was delivered. You know, you think companies like Ingram, which were which have been a long Nashville family. The Frist were the were the health care people. The Ingrams, you know, they took what was a so publishing was always a massive industry in this city and in part because of religious publishing. So we had Baptist publishing house and Methodist publishing house and they they published all the, you know, all the books for all of the churches all over America. So we had this robust but the Ingram Group transformed publishing to digital that they they really were the leading company that decided to take books and make them digital and begin to sell them on Amazon and that sort of thing. So you've got things like health care and publishing and the nuclear industry, which matters a lot to the people in this room, I would expect. And I I wanna talk about that in a minute. But, I mean, we we the Manhattan Project was really born in Oak Ridge, and the innovation that came from Oak Ridge, and it's beginning to come again in Oak Ridge as we, you know, reestablish ourselves as the epicenter of nuclear energy.
This state has a innovation history. So when I think about this group, as much as I, I laugh with my team because I make them brief me for, like, an hour on this, all the things that you all do. And then I'll start over and go, okay. Like, do that all over again. And, you know, I remember when I used to try to teach my daughter math, and I would I would she would say, dad, I can tell you're scratching your head. You're frustrated. I can see my policy director going he's asked me again to explain it. But I but I will say, I'm a mechanical engineer. I took a a a a class on Einstein's theories of relativity back when I was 19.
And it was a fascinating class for me. It it was one of those where you sit there and you look at the board all filled with stuff and you're like, can I really understand that up there? Like, you you you kinda surprise yourself, but when someone brings it to you one step at a time, you kinda get it. And what we all know or what you know, what I know about Einstein was he really he challenged conventional thinking. So we had Newtonian physics, and we had all kind of these principles that had lived for a long time. And then he said, I think it's different than that. I think these theories of we you know, space and time and the Earth have all been fixed in place forever according to Newton's theories and principles, and he said, no. I think they're relative to one another. And he was right. And it it changed the way we think about science.
It didn't change truths and principles that were there before, but it did it did challenge some of those truth. And I kinda came away from that class going, that is the way I wanna think for the rest of my life. Like, I don't wanna be stuck in the conventional thinking. So when I think about what's happening here, I don't understand it. I I never I mean, I do. It's at a base level, and it's very exciting to me. But what it really is for me, I you know, I came to I came to government and all of a sudden inherited 23 departments.
I was a mechanical contractor, plumbers, pipefitters, welders, engineers, all that stuff, construction, department of health, department of labor, department of the interior, department of this, department of that. And, you know, I realized I didn't have to understand everything about every one of those things, but that we could, as a state, we could come innovate in those ways and change. That's how I feel about what's going on here. I am trying to understand it deeper, but I'm excited about innovative, forward thinking, technology changing ideas that are kind of the way Einstein thinks.
[00:09:10] ODELL:
So, I mean, let's let's talk about that a little bit. What we're kinda seeing right now in The States is is there's a bit of a space race between states. Right? And and right now, in Texas and Tennessee, we're starting to see kind of these epicenters of of Bitcoin innovation happen and Bitcoin adoption and companies moving to to friendlier jurisdictions. And a key aspect of that is energy. Energy cost, energy reliability, the robustness of the infrastructure. How do you think about energy innovation and energy policy in Tennessee?
[00:09:47] Governor Bill Lee:
I talked to a lot of companies that are moving here. Yesterday, we did a ribbon cutting on a Korean company that's, that's investing here, created a a big facility manufacturing, electrolytes for batteries. And whenever we talk to companies from either around the world or in The United States, they wanna know if we have the workers and do we have the energy. Because they know, like most people know, that the the fragility, the the nature of the grid right now, is such that if we don't innovate, my state of the state address is in two two weeks, and I'm sure everyone will be watching it.
My my team my team tells me when I get all nervous to go out and do my state of the state, they're like, remember, sir, dozens of people are gonna be watching it. And now I've come to believe that was the first time. Now I've come to believe, well, that's absolutely the truth. So, but I lost my train of thought. So I I think that it and we're talking about innovation in our say the state. I think that when you recognize where the grid is, you better be thinking about how you're gonna strengthen your grid. I think about it from a from a national standpoint. I actually think national security, national economic development, everything from the, from the nation's energy security importance. It has to start somewhere. I would I'd like it to start in Tennessee. Nuclear energy is the clean energy that's that's bipartisan, noncontroversial, whatever. I mean, I'm I'm an all of the above guy. I think we ought to have we ought to have every you know, we ought to pursue every strategy energy wise.
But one of those, all of the above is nuclear. And Tennessee is uniquely positioned to do that. We already have 42% of our grid is nuclear based in our state. And that's in part because of what's been going on in Oak Ridge for the last, whatever, seventy five ninety years. And we have a we have a unique community there that understands nuclear, that desires for we have the only undeveloped but federally approved nuclear site in the country, and I hope that will be a developed nuclear site soon. In fact, next week on the fourth, I'm having a I'm I'm having three governors, multiple massive, you know, national utility companies, major technology private sector users, for a kind of a summit or it's really just a meeting together with us to say, what are we gonna do together collectively as the Southern States to which all these companies are moving and, of which we all need the power. And, you know, first of a kind cost for small modular reactors are enormous, but second and third and fourth and fifth so if we ordered six or seven together, the three of us or four of us, maybe we could lower cost. So that I just I created a the general assembly and myself created the the nuclear energy advisory council of national experts around the world, a nuclear energy fund, which we seed money, $50,000,000 put in it, to attract industry companies in the production in in all things nuclear to Tennessee.
Cairo, sex energy, Arano, the massive major cutting edge nuclear engineering and technology companies are making decision to come here. I want Tennessee to be the center of that. And for our own grid, but also for the nation. So, yeah, it matters a lot that we invest in energy.
[00:13:56] ODELL:
I mean, so you said nuclear a lot.
[00:13:59] Governor Bill Lee:
Do you do you Sorry. Do you do you think I didn't say nuclear, which drives me crazy when people do that. I do have a southern accent, but I get that word right. I I love it. My son worked for a nuclear engineering firm, so he always is, like, trying to school me on he goes, dad, don't talk like you're an expert in nuclear. Let me tell you what you don't know.
[00:14:21] ODELL:
Well, what I was gonna ask is, do you I I don't know if it's my bias or or the bubble that I'm in, but do you feel like momentum's changing there? It to me, it feels like a lot of progress has been made over the last two years even just from a narrative point of view. I think that's right. I think,
[00:14:41] Governor Bill Lee:
I think the seriousness of the grid issue has come to light for most, people that are that have anything to do with that grid. So for us, TBA has kinda come to us and said if we don't if we don't manage this process, then we can't, for example, have that company locate here. And I'm like, wait a minute. We are I'm flying all over the world trying to get companies to come here and people like you to come here, and I can't afford and we have one of the best energy reliable energy grids in the country. We can't afford to slow that down at all. So thus, the urgency to get this done, I mean, it's probably the most important thing that we should be investing in as a state if we care about our people having opportunity and jobs going forward.
Love it.
[00:15:43] ODELL:
So to Bitcoiners, we probably have three tenants of our, political priorities. Right? We have energy, energy infrastructure. We have personal property rights. And then the last but definitely not least is is tax policy. How do you how have you thought about tax policy during, your tenure as governor? How do you think about it going forward? Where does Tennessee sit here in terms of competition between the states?
[00:16:18] Governor Bill Lee:
So one of the, one one of the answers to that is kind of ideological, which is I kinda think people know better how to spend their money than the government does. So to the degree that we can and I know that a lot more now that I've been the government for six years. To the people that we to the to the degree that we can keep dollars in the hands of businesses, entrepreneurs, you know, moms. I don't care who you are. To the degree that we can keep your dollars in your hands and let you spend them, you're gonna have more interest in their being in them being spent well than the government would have on your behalf. That's the ideological reason why you gotta have low taxes because because of that.
Secondly, I think that well, if you believe that, then people do spend their money. I mean, I ran a business for twenty five years, worked there thirty five years, own it. I need the revenue and the capital that I have in my business to invest in next year's revenue. I need that to invest in, and I don't need to give it to the government to invest in the things that are important. I I do at some level, but, right, there needs to be a really good balance there. So I try to think about that as tax policy. There are things government needs to do. We need to build roads. We need to build bridges. We need to expand the Internet access for technology all over the all over the state. We need to I mean, we can list off all the things that are the we need to educate children. We need to provide for that environment.
There are things we're supposed to do. We need to do it well. We need to have tax tax dollars to do that. So I get that appropriate mix there. But, to the degree that we can keep our taxes down and serve the people with the services that we're that they expect us to serve them with, like roads and bridges and highways and education, then that that's kind of the real balance. We are the lowest depends on how you measure it. Right? By any measure, we're we're in the top five lowest tax rate per capita states in the country. So our citizens, as a percentage of personal income, pay less in taxes than citizens of at least 45 other states.
We just lowered business taxes. We I believe that when you put I'm a philosophical believer that when you put taxes back in the hands of users, they will invest them in ways that are better for the economy, better for the people, better for the, better for the state than that's just a smaller government philosophy. We have one here in this state like that.
[00:19:17] ODELL:
So governor, I know your time is precious. So one last question. It's great. Thank you. Thank you again for joining us.
[00:19:25] Governor Bill Lee:
My alternative is to go back to the capital. So
[00:19:29] ODELL:
it's a little bit better. I, before we wrap up here, there's a there's plenty of people in this room that are thinking about moving their families, moving their businesses to Tennessee. What is what is your pitch to them to consider this great state?
[00:19:50] Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah. One of the one of the things that I mean, as someone who grew up here and lived here all my life and had seventh generation and gosh. There's not a better place in all the world to live. And it's beautiful. We're gonna keep it beautiful. I have a whole conservation strategy, by the way, that we won't talk about today, but we we we have to be innovative, attracting companies, attracting business, have the fastest growing economy in America, have the lowest and we have to preserve all that so that my great grandchildren will still have the most beautiful place in America to live. But and and so we are committed to that as well. It's a reason to consider where someone's gonna move.
There's something about I mean, maybe it's just because I live here, but there's something about a way of life here. I met a guy who was, had just moved his family here from New York, and with no disrespect to anybody from New York here, but he said, he was like, you know what governor? I just moved my family here and I feel like I've moved back to America. And I said, you know what? That's what you wanna have right there. It's a great it's a great place to live, and I I wish you all would come here. It's great.
[00:21:12] Rod Roudi:
So I'm gonna ask one question and then maybe closing thoughts real quick, and then we'll wrap. First of all, I think you called a special session on Monday, so thank you for being here. I was nervous that, you know, you're gonna be a little too busy. Today may be the most important vote or not such. That's what I was gonna ask you about, the Educational Freedom Act, especially if someone with four kids, you know, other people have a number of kids. You're talking about putting money back in our pockets. You could just touch on that. Yeah. And maybe touch on the nuclear side for a lot of these folks that are allocating millions, if not billions of dollars in investment in infrastructure, potentially here in the state. Yep. Maybe touch on both of those. Yep.
[00:21:49] Governor Bill Lee:
Education freedom. I I do think that people ought to decide where their kids go to school, not the government. And government has a responsibility to educate kids. We have a responsibility to create an environment where kids can be educated. But I think we can create that environment for them to be educated, then let you choose how your kids are educated. You pay taxes. They go to education. If you wanna send your kid to a private school, then you ought to be able to use your tax dollars to do that. That's just what I think. I've homeschooled my kids, private schooled my kids, and I public schooled my kids.
And because every kid's different, every classroom's different, all that freedom of choice for education. So in 02/2019, when I first got elected, my first state of the state address, which was seven state of states ago, I said, we should have education freedom in Tennessee, and we ought to have it this year. Today, by 02:00, hopefully, we will have education freedom in Tennessee. There'll be a vote today on this issue. And I I'm a person who believes that look. I know that 90% of our kids in this state are going to be in our public schools, which, by the way, are outperforming the national average in recovery from COVID. Yesterday, big story about that. But all our ninety percent of our kids are gonna go to poke to poke schools. We should have the best ones in the country. We we should invest heavily in them. We have teacher pay raises. My wife is a former teacher.
Like, this idea that we have to be against public schools to be for educational choice, it is a false narrative. So I'm I'm I'm a guy that says, hey. We can have both, and we're going to. So, hopefully, it's a really big day for me. I'm excited to be here. And, frankly, I'm glad to be out of capital because I'm so tired of talking about this subject. It's gonna happen. Nuclear energy, I think we talked on that a little bit. I I met the new energy secretary, and frankly, I had a relate a good relationship with the federal, former energy secretary.
It's a bipartisan issue that is just I I think one of the reasons we're seeing it happen is because people have discovered that we have to have energy independence in America, to have national security in America, and to have economic development in America, and all the things, all the stuff that has to happen, and a lot of it revolves around energy. Just like these companies say, do you have the workers? Do you have the energy? And if you do, then I might come here. And when you're competing with Texas and Florida and whatever, you gotta have it. And you gotta have a strategy for workforce development, for high-tech workforce development, or plumbers.
And we've we could talk about that a long time too, how we're kinda trying to change the way high school looks in Tennessee, and we put billions of dollars investment there. So nuclear energy is a key part of the energy for America's future, and and I
[00:25:03] Rod Roudi:
I do want it to be right here in the center. Yeah. And thank you for that. I'm gonna pass it back to Matt in a second. I just wanna give a shout out to Michael Hendricks, Elizabeth, Madeline, whoever's from the the governor's team. Can you guys give them a round of applause? They're the ones
[00:25:19] Governor Bill Lee:
that
[00:25:20] Rod Roudi:
Michael is the one that kinda has to scratch his head when he gets it. Tell me that again. So, your COO, Brandon Gibson, will be here in attendance tomorrow. Okay. So I think she's heading up and doing a bunch of stuff on the nuclear, so we're excited to have her. She is. She really is kind of
[00:25:35] Governor Bill Lee:
the she's organizing this event coming together, but she's also just a she's a really smart lady. You're gonna you're gonna love hearing from her. She's a brilliant, thinker and, yeah, she has much to do with our strategy going forward to lead the country in new nuclear, and new nuclear technology.
[00:25:57] ODELL:
Thank Thank you, governor. Governor Lee, everyone. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
[00:26:01] Rod Roudi:
So, everyone, please sit down.
Can we have a huge round of applause for governor Lee? Thank you. Thank you, sir. So governor, it's your second time at Bitcoin Park. Welcome back.
[00:00:15] Governor Bill Lee:
Thank you. This is a a little more even maybe a packed more packed room than last time, but, I loved hearing from where all this audience has come. It's very exciting to us in Tennessee when we get to host people from around the country and the world. So thank you for coming.
[00:00:35] ODELL:
Wonderful. So I thought an interesting place to start is, you were born you were born here, well, in Franklin, 1959 on a ranch. How did that shape your life and and bring you to the place you are today?
[00:00:52] Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah. My family is a seventh generation. I'm a seventh generation. So my it cool story is that the guy, Braxton Lee, the pioneer that came from Virginia to Tennessee and settled on the banks of the Cumberland River happened to settle in 1796. That's the year Tennessee was created. So my family's been here ever since. We're in the cattle business and in the I'm a mechanical engineer. We're we're in the engineering and and mechanical services business. I was before I changed jobs. And, so I grew up not far from here and went to engineering school, got involved in a family business, got involved in understanding the government's role in how it can be a hindrance or help.
Actually, you know, I I lived a really great life. Wife, kids, farm, Tennessee, doesn't get any better. My wife was killed. I I got I reevaluated my life and what it was about. Got involved in nonprofit work and inner city kids and Haiti and Africa and Mexico and how do you live your life to the fullest. And that led to inner city public education policy or criminal justice reform prison policy. And one thing led to another, and I thought, you know what? What the heck? I should run for governor and, and see if we can make a difference. So that's why I'm sitting here.
[00:02:30] ODELL:
It's a really incredibly inspiring story. I was, trying to do a little bit of research before this interview, and I was just amazed about your life path, and and what you've been through and what you've overcome and and and how you have improved Tennessee. You know, a little bit about myself. I moved here with my family about four years ago. And I was a crazy person, so I started Bitcoin Park with Rod seven months later. And as you can see, the momentum in Tennessee has been absolutely massive. It's hard for me to imagine what Nashville and Tennessee was like in the sixties.
And I'm kinda curious from your perspective, like, how you see the progress that has been made. How like, have there been have there been mistakes? Is what's the progress? Like, where are we today, Tennessee, sixty years later, versus, the town you grew up in?
[00:03:33] Governor Bill Lee:
I have thought about that. Obviously, when you're in my position, you think about the transition of your state. So in the sixties, when I was a kid, I I always tell people we we had one building that was taller than, you know, five stories or something. The Life And Casualty Building, I think, was built in maybe '57 or '59 or something like that. And we had this one skyscraper for twenty years, and that's what Downtown Nashville was to me growing up. So the transformation's been remarkable. But, for some unique reason, and I'm not sure what what it is, but Tennessee has had a kind of a long history of very innovative thinkers and people, even from some of the, you know, original founders.
And and the way that translate out in my sort of adult lifehood, life has been I mean, when you think about companies like Hospital Corporation of America, there was a the HCA was a business launched in Nashville that transformed the health care industry, became the largest hospital owned company in the world, had hospitals all over the world, and just really transformed the way health care was delivered. You know, you think companies like Ingram, which were which have been a long Nashville family. The Frist were the were the health care people. The Ingrams, you know, they took what was a so publishing was always a massive industry in this city and in part because of religious publishing. So we had Baptist publishing house and Methodist publishing house and they they published all the, you know, all the books for all of the churches all over America. So we had this robust but the Ingram Group transformed publishing to digital that they they really were the leading company that decided to take books and make them digital and begin to sell them on Amazon and that sort of thing. So you've got things like health care and publishing and the nuclear industry, which matters a lot to the people in this room, I would expect. And I I wanna talk about that in a minute. But, I mean, we we the Manhattan Project was really born in Oak Ridge, and the innovation that came from Oak Ridge, and it's beginning to come again in Oak Ridge as we, you know, reestablish ourselves as the epicenter of nuclear energy.
This state has a innovation history. So when I think about this group, as much as I, I laugh with my team because I make them brief me for, like, an hour on this, all the things that you all do. And then I'll start over and go, okay. Like, do that all over again. And, you know, I remember when I used to try to teach my daughter math, and I would I would she would say, dad, I can tell you're scratching your head. You're frustrated. I can see my policy director going he's asked me again to explain it. But I but I will say, I'm a mechanical engineer. I took a a a a class on Einstein's theories of relativity back when I was 19.
And it was a fascinating class for me. It it was one of those where you sit there and you look at the board all filled with stuff and you're like, can I really understand that up there? Like, you you you kinda surprise yourself, but when someone brings it to you one step at a time, you kinda get it. And what we all know or what you know, what I know about Einstein was he really he challenged conventional thinking. So we had Newtonian physics, and we had all kind of these principles that had lived for a long time. And then he said, I think it's different than that. I think these theories of we you know, space and time and the Earth have all been fixed in place forever according to Newton's theories and principles, and he said, no. I think they're relative to one another. And he was right. And it it changed the way we think about science.
It didn't change truths and principles that were there before, but it did it did challenge some of those truth. And I kinda came away from that class going, that is the way I wanna think for the rest of my life. Like, I don't wanna be stuck in the conventional thinking. So when I think about what's happening here, I don't understand it. I I never I mean, I do. It's at a base level, and it's very exciting to me. But what it really is for me, I you know, I came to I came to government and all of a sudden inherited 23 departments.
I was a mechanical contractor, plumbers, pipefitters, welders, engineers, all that stuff, construction, department of health, department of labor, department of the interior, department of this, department of that. And, you know, I realized I didn't have to understand everything about every one of those things, but that we could, as a state, we could come innovate in those ways and change. That's how I feel about what's going on here. I am trying to understand it deeper, but I'm excited about innovative, forward thinking, technology changing ideas that are kind of the way Einstein thinks.
[00:09:10] ODELL:
So, I mean, let's let's talk about that a little bit. What we're kinda seeing right now in The States is is there's a bit of a space race between states. Right? And and right now, in Texas and Tennessee, we're starting to see kind of these epicenters of of Bitcoin innovation happen and Bitcoin adoption and companies moving to to friendlier jurisdictions. And a key aspect of that is energy. Energy cost, energy reliability, the robustness of the infrastructure. How do you think about energy innovation and energy policy in Tennessee?
[00:09:47] Governor Bill Lee:
I talked to a lot of companies that are moving here. Yesterday, we did a ribbon cutting on a Korean company that's, that's investing here, created a a big facility manufacturing, electrolytes for batteries. And whenever we talk to companies from either around the world or in The United States, they wanna know if we have the workers and do we have the energy. Because they know, like most people know, that the the fragility, the the nature of the grid right now, is such that if we don't innovate, my state of the state address is in two two weeks, and I'm sure everyone will be watching it.
My my team my team tells me when I get all nervous to go out and do my state of the state, they're like, remember, sir, dozens of people are gonna be watching it. And now I've come to believe that was the first time. Now I've come to believe, well, that's absolutely the truth. So, but I lost my train of thought. So I I think that it and we're talking about innovation in our say the state. I think that when you recognize where the grid is, you better be thinking about how you're gonna strengthen your grid. I think about it from a from a national standpoint. I actually think national security, national economic development, everything from the, from the nation's energy security importance. It has to start somewhere. I would I'd like it to start in Tennessee. Nuclear energy is the clean energy that's that's bipartisan, noncontroversial, whatever. I mean, I'm I'm an all of the above guy. I think we ought to have we ought to have every you know, we ought to pursue every strategy energy wise.
But one of those, all of the above is nuclear. And Tennessee is uniquely positioned to do that. We already have 42% of our grid is nuclear based in our state. And that's in part because of what's been going on in Oak Ridge for the last, whatever, seventy five ninety years. And we have a we have a unique community there that understands nuclear, that desires for we have the only undeveloped but federally approved nuclear site in the country, and I hope that will be a developed nuclear site soon. In fact, next week on the fourth, I'm having a I'm I'm having three governors, multiple massive, you know, national utility companies, major technology private sector users, for a kind of a summit or it's really just a meeting together with us to say, what are we gonna do together collectively as the Southern States to which all these companies are moving and, of which we all need the power. And, you know, first of a kind cost for small modular reactors are enormous, but second and third and fourth and fifth so if we ordered six or seven together, the three of us or four of us, maybe we could lower cost. So that I just I created a the general assembly and myself created the the nuclear energy advisory council of national experts around the world, a nuclear energy fund, which we seed money, $50,000,000 put in it, to attract industry companies in the production in in all things nuclear to Tennessee.
Cairo, sex energy, Arano, the massive major cutting edge nuclear engineering and technology companies are making decision to come here. I want Tennessee to be the center of that. And for our own grid, but also for the nation. So, yeah, it matters a lot that we invest in energy.
[00:13:56] ODELL:
I mean, so you said nuclear a lot.
[00:13:59] Governor Bill Lee:
Do you do you Sorry. Do you do you think I didn't say nuclear, which drives me crazy when people do that. I do have a southern accent, but I get that word right. I I love it. My son worked for a nuclear engineering firm, so he always is, like, trying to school me on he goes, dad, don't talk like you're an expert in nuclear. Let me tell you what you don't know.
[00:14:21] ODELL:
Well, what I was gonna ask is, do you I I don't know if it's my bias or or the bubble that I'm in, but do you feel like momentum's changing there? It to me, it feels like a lot of progress has been made over the last two years even just from a narrative point of view. I think that's right. I think,
[00:14:41] Governor Bill Lee:
I think the seriousness of the grid issue has come to light for most, people that are that have anything to do with that grid. So for us, TBA has kinda come to us and said if we don't if we don't manage this process, then we can't, for example, have that company locate here. And I'm like, wait a minute. We are I'm flying all over the world trying to get companies to come here and people like you to come here, and I can't afford and we have one of the best energy reliable energy grids in the country. We can't afford to slow that down at all. So thus, the urgency to get this done, I mean, it's probably the most important thing that we should be investing in as a state if we care about our people having opportunity and jobs going forward.
Love it.
[00:15:43] ODELL:
So to Bitcoiners, we probably have three tenants of our, political priorities. Right? We have energy, energy infrastructure. We have personal property rights. And then the last but definitely not least is is tax policy. How do you how have you thought about tax policy during, your tenure as governor? How do you think about it going forward? Where does Tennessee sit here in terms of competition between the states?
[00:16:18] Governor Bill Lee:
So one of the, one one of the answers to that is kind of ideological, which is I kinda think people know better how to spend their money than the government does. So to the degree that we can and I know that a lot more now that I've been the government for six years. To the people that we to the to the degree that we can keep dollars in the hands of businesses, entrepreneurs, you know, moms. I don't care who you are. To the degree that we can keep your dollars in your hands and let you spend them, you're gonna have more interest in their being in them being spent well than the government would have on your behalf. That's the ideological reason why you gotta have low taxes because because of that.
Secondly, I think that well, if you believe that, then people do spend their money. I mean, I ran a business for twenty five years, worked there thirty five years, own it. I need the revenue and the capital that I have in my business to invest in next year's revenue. I need that to invest in, and I don't need to give it to the government to invest in the things that are important. I I do at some level, but, right, there needs to be a really good balance there. So I try to think about that as tax policy. There are things government needs to do. We need to build roads. We need to build bridges. We need to expand the Internet access for technology all over the all over the state. We need to I mean, we can list off all the things that are the we need to educate children. We need to provide for that environment.
There are things we're supposed to do. We need to do it well. We need to have tax tax dollars to do that. So I get that appropriate mix there. But, to the degree that we can keep our taxes down and serve the people with the services that we're that they expect us to serve them with, like roads and bridges and highways and education, then that that's kind of the real balance. We are the lowest depends on how you measure it. Right? By any measure, we're we're in the top five lowest tax rate per capita states in the country. So our citizens, as a percentage of personal income, pay less in taxes than citizens of at least 45 other states.
We just lowered business taxes. We I believe that when you put I'm a philosophical believer that when you put taxes back in the hands of users, they will invest them in ways that are better for the economy, better for the people, better for the, better for the state than that's just a smaller government philosophy. We have one here in this state like that.
[00:19:17] ODELL:
So governor, I know your time is precious. So one last question. It's great. Thank you. Thank you again for joining us.
[00:19:25] Governor Bill Lee:
My alternative is to go back to the capital. So
[00:19:29] ODELL:
it's a little bit better. I, before we wrap up here, there's a there's plenty of people in this room that are thinking about moving their families, moving their businesses to Tennessee. What is what is your pitch to them to consider this great state?
[00:19:50] Governor Bill Lee:
Yeah. One of the one of the things that I mean, as someone who grew up here and lived here all my life and had seventh generation and gosh. There's not a better place in all the world to live. And it's beautiful. We're gonna keep it beautiful. I have a whole conservation strategy, by the way, that we won't talk about today, but we we we have to be innovative, attracting companies, attracting business, have the fastest growing economy in America, have the lowest and we have to preserve all that so that my great grandchildren will still have the most beautiful place in America to live. But and and so we are committed to that as well. It's a reason to consider where someone's gonna move.
There's something about I mean, maybe it's just because I live here, but there's something about a way of life here. I met a guy who was, had just moved his family here from New York, and with no disrespect to anybody from New York here, but he said, he was like, you know what governor? I just moved my family here and I feel like I've moved back to America. And I said, you know what? That's what you wanna have right there. It's a great it's a great place to live, and I I wish you all would come here. It's great.
[00:21:12] Rod Roudi:
So I'm gonna ask one question and then maybe closing thoughts real quick, and then we'll wrap. First of all, I think you called a special session on Monday, so thank you for being here. I was nervous that, you know, you're gonna be a little too busy. Today may be the most important vote or not such. That's what I was gonna ask you about, the Educational Freedom Act, especially if someone with four kids, you know, other people have a number of kids. You're talking about putting money back in our pockets. You could just touch on that. Yeah. And maybe touch on the nuclear side for a lot of these folks that are allocating millions, if not billions of dollars in investment in infrastructure, potentially here in the state. Yep. Maybe touch on both of those. Yep.
[00:21:49] Governor Bill Lee:
Education freedom. I I do think that people ought to decide where their kids go to school, not the government. And government has a responsibility to educate kids. We have a responsibility to create an environment where kids can be educated. But I think we can create that environment for them to be educated, then let you choose how your kids are educated. You pay taxes. They go to education. If you wanna send your kid to a private school, then you ought to be able to use your tax dollars to do that. That's just what I think. I've homeschooled my kids, private schooled my kids, and I public schooled my kids.
And because every kid's different, every classroom's different, all that freedom of choice for education. So in 02/2019, when I first got elected, my first state of the state address, which was seven state of states ago, I said, we should have education freedom in Tennessee, and we ought to have it this year. Today, by 02:00, hopefully, we will have education freedom in Tennessee. There'll be a vote today on this issue. And I I'm a person who believes that look. I know that 90% of our kids in this state are going to be in our public schools, which, by the way, are outperforming the national average in recovery from COVID. Yesterday, big story about that. But all our ninety percent of our kids are gonna go to poke to poke schools. We should have the best ones in the country. We we should invest heavily in them. We have teacher pay raises. My wife is a former teacher.
Like, this idea that we have to be against public schools to be for educational choice, it is a false narrative. So I'm I'm I'm a guy that says, hey. We can have both, and we're going to. So, hopefully, it's a really big day for me. I'm excited to be here. And, frankly, I'm glad to be out of capital because I'm so tired of talking about this subject. It's gonna happen. Nuclear energy, I think we talked on that a little bit. I I met the new energy secretary, and frankly, I had a relate a good relationship with the federal, former energy secretary.
It's a bipartisan issue that is just I I think one of the reasons we're seeing it happen is because people have discovered that we have to have energy independence in America, to have national security in America, and to have economic development in America, and all the things, all the stuff that has to happen, and a lot of it revolves around energy. Just like these companies say, do you have the workers? Do you have the energy? And if you do, then I might come here. And when you're competing with Texas and Florida and whatever, you gotta have it. And you gotta have a strategy for workforce development, for high-tech workforce development, or plumbers.
And we've we could talk about that a long time too, how we're kinda trying to change the way high school looks in Tennessee, and we put billions of dollars investment there. So nuclear energy is a key part of the energy for America's future, and and I
[00:25:03] Rod Roudi:
I do want it to be right here in the center. Yeah. And thank you for that. I'm gonna pass it back to Matt in a second. I just wanna give a shout out to Michael Hendricks, Elizabeth, Madeline, whoever's from the the governor's team. Can you guys give them a round of applause? They're the ones
[00:25:19] Governor Bill Lee:
that
[00:25:20] Rod Roudi:
Michael is the one that kinda has to scratch his head when he gets it. Tell me that again. So, your COO, Brandon Gibson, will be here in attendance tomorrow. Okay. So I think she's heading up and doing a bunch of stuff on the nuclear, so we're excited to have her. She is. She really is kind of
[00:25:35] Governor Bill Lee:
the she's organizing this event coming together, but she's also just a she's a really smart lady. You're gonna you're gonna love hearing from her. She's a brilliant, thinker and, yeah, she has much to do with our strategy going forward to lead the country in new nuclear, and new nuclear technology.
[00:25:57] ODELL:
Thank Thank you, governor. Governor Lee, everyone. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
[00:26:01] Rod Roudi:
So, everyone, please sit down.
