I need a biography on austin peay

Toggle navigation. Home Contact. By Dan Pierce , Western Carolina University Austin Peay, a successful and progressive governor during the s, was perhaps best known as the governor who signed the infamous Butler anti-evolution Bill into law. Through administrative reorganization and advocacy of reform-minded legislation, Peay influenced the state during the four and one-half years in office more so than any other governor of his era.

By the time of his death, Peay had completely reorganized state government, improved the tax system, reformed education, expanded and improved the road system, established Tennessee's first state park, and assured the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Although his policies benefited most Tennesseans, Peay focused his efforts on reviving stagnant agriculture and improving the quality of rural life.

When Peay took office in , he inherited the leadership of a state over three million dollars in debt, and ranked forty-ninth in per capita expenditures for government services. Tennessee's educational system ranked last in teacher salaries and forty-third in per-pupil expenditure; adult illiteracy was high.

Austin peay football

The state had only miles of paved state highways, and bridges spanned few of its major rivers. State appropriations often ended up in the pockets of county courthouse gangs and were funded by a property tax which unfairly weighed on Tennessee's depressed farming community. Peay began his administration with improvements for the notoriously inefficient state government.

Prior to Peay, Tennessee's governors exercised little power--other than the veto--and maintained little control over the bureaucracy they ostensibly supervised. In Peay pushed through the Administrative Reorganization Act, which gave the governor hiring and firing power over the executive branch bureaucrats, greater control over the state budget, and reorganized administrative agencies to make them more professional and efficient.

He sought an end to the wasteful expenditure of state money and developed a reputation as a budget watchdog. Peay also tackled Tennessee's antiquated and inequitable revenue system.