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NASHVILLE — The Tennessee House on Monday joined the Senate in rejecting Gov. Phil Bredesen's veto of a bill to limit local authority for requiring calorie counts to be listed on restaurant menus.

The votes in both chambers — 65-31 in the House and 24-7 in the Senate — easily met the majority threshold needed to turn back the veto.

The measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Susan Lynn of Mt. Juliet only allows local elected officials — and not the health boards they appoint — to establish requirements to list calorie counts on menus.

When local health boards make decisions on menu labeling “the voters have no recourse and elected boards should be making these decisions,” Lynn said.

The bill was introduced in response to a decision in Nashville last year to require menu labeling at chain restaurants.

Republican Rep. Curry Todd of Collierville said he supported the override because calorie count requirements would increase costs for diners as “you would have 40-page menus.”

The Democratic governor vetoed the bill in July, citing Tennessee's obesity rate that ranks among the highest in the nation. Bredesen's office said it had no new comment beyond what it offered when on the Senate vote last month.

“Anything that stalls progress toward getting healthier is something the governor opposes, which is why he vetoed the bill,” spokeswoman Lydia Lenker said at the time.

Lynn said the restrictions will help prevent local health boards from creating a series of varying requirements on menu labeling. Calorie count requirements also limit restauranteur's flexibility if they want to make last-minute menu changes.

“And in some areas of our nation this is becoming a cause of action to sue, because the calorie counts were incorrect on the menu,” Lynn said.

All but two of the votes to sustain Bredesen's veto came from Democrats. The GOP voters against overriding the veto included House Speaker Kent Williams, an Elizabethton restaurateur.

Lynn said there's better ways to be healthy than imposing menu label requirements.

“Eating nutritionally is quite different than calorie counts,” she said.

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