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| Phil Bredesen | |
NASHVILLE — With the national economy slumping, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has told his department heads to draw up 2009-2010 plans for an “ugly” budget that slashes spending by 10 percent or more.
“We’re not going to get in bankrupt shape,” Gov. Bredesen said. “We’re going to make the cuts that it takes to stay healthy and move forward and get through this.”
According to administration estimates, Tennessee faces a revenue shortfall of between $515 million and $780 million, and possibly more, by June 30.
Tennessee is one of 41 states that face budget shortfalls in the current fiscal year or the 2009-2010 fiscal year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Georgia faces a current-year shortfall of at least $1.8 billion, according to the center.
Gov. Bredesen’s remarks, made earlier this week to reporters, came as he prepares for Monday, when he begins two weeks of public budget hearings. Underscoring the seriousness of the state’s financial situation, Gov. Bredesen canceled plans to lead a meeting on Friday of his Task Force on Energy Policy in order to focus on the budget.
The governor has said he plans to use a combination of spending cuts and part of the state’s $750 million rainy day reserve fund to offset the shortfall. But making the cuts in the 2009-2010 budget will require permanent spending reductions.
Gov. Bredesen previously ordered state departments to prepare cuts of 3 percent. But he said if the state faces an $800 million deficit in the current fiscal year, “we’re going to have to go beyond that.”
Some departments may be affected more than others.
“We need to keep people in jail,” the governor said. “I can’t get rid of people who staff the prisons, for example. I’m going to try to make education whole. But to make a budget like that work, you’re probably going to have to have cuts that are in the range of 10 percent or slightly greater across the board in different kinds of departments.”
The chairman of Hamilton County’s legislative delegation, Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said lawmakers will examine the governor’s proposals closely.
“I’m sure there’s no sentiment out there to increase taxes,” Rep. McCormick said. “We’re just going to have to make choices and make cuts.”
Earlier this year, lawmakers whacked $468 million out of Gov. Bredesen’s originally proposed 2008-09 budget, which went into effect July 1.
Rep. Tommie Brown, D-Chattanooga, a House Finance Committee member, said that as cuts come, “I will be there doing battle for children and poor and middle-class families.
“We have to try to protect them,” she said. “Maybe that’s socialism, but I suspect God might be a socialist, particularly Jesus Christ when he stopped to feed the multitudes.”
In addition to the state’s $750 million rainy day fund, Tennessee also has an estimated $500 million in TennCare reserves. The governor has said he does not intend to spend all the state’s combined $1.25 billion in reserves this year.
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Comments
Rep. Brown - I seem to remember something about Jesus stating that if a man wouldn't work...he shouldn't expect to eat (?). Yes, feed the children...but there comes a time when "Jesus" expects that child to grow up. We have become a Nation of people standing in-line for a "hand-out" after they supposedly become adults...
2 of 3 people found this comment useful.
Indeed, GreenKepi, indeed.
0 of 0 people found this comment useful.
Amen brother, everyone that needs help is a deadbeat who has no one to blame but themselves, sure enough.
Yep, not one person that falls on hard times wants to work, or be successful. They just not working hard enough that's their problem, not the factory that shuts down. If they worked harder those millions of jobs that have been lost would still be here. It their fault. Why should the hard working smart people have to pay for the lazy stupid people? Helping others, what is this country coming to?
0 of 0 people found this comment useful.
Tennessee needs to eliminate the fraud that is rampant in so many benefits. It needs to require citizenship for those free services that illegal aliens are currently accessing through fraud and stolen social security numbers. It should acquire the free government programs E VERIFY and SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement) to help verify those who are here legally.
The American citizens are part of the biggest bail out in history and they will need the jobs, wages, and services that may be necessary to keep their lives going and their families safe and secure.
0 of 1 people found this comment useful.
wow whimsie seems like the word illegal alien is in your head 100% of the time,all comments you post are off topic, TN goverment already requires citizenship proof for all aplicants.
0 of 0 people found this comment useful.
Actually that eat/work quote is Paul from 2 Thessalonians 3.
Using Rep. Brown's logic, since those people had been following Jesus for three days without food, should we only provide socialism for 1 of every three days?
Jesus did say "For ye have the poor always with you;", so was he saying that socialism would never work?
I think a lot of "socialism" could have been accomplished with the $2 BILLION + tax surplus of the last two years. What happened to it? How many years have the party of Brown/Bredesen passed unconstitutional budgets exceeding the Copeland Cap? How much "socialism" would a $17 MILLION underground party bunker buy?
To continue Rep. Brown's analogy, you already have our loaves and fish - why is everyone still hungry?
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