Time to break out the budget axe
November 17, 2009 at 6:26 pm | In Tennessee Politics | Leave a CommentIt looks like the state budget may get a close shave next fiscal year. I’m not convinced that things will be as dire as the finance commissioner says they will be. After all, government officials tend to overplay their hand in situations such as this, but it will be interesting to see how Governor Bredesen and the Tennessee General Assembly wrap their arms around the next budget.
But firm decisions on any cuts won’t be proposed by the governor until late January, and the state legislature will have the final say in the spring. Monday was the opening round of the first stage in preparing the $25-billion-plus budget for the fiscal year starting next July 1.
The $1.5 billion in the “worst-case scenario” described by the governor and Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz includes $515 million in budget cuts already built into this year’s and next year’s budgets but delayed from going into affect by the use of federal economic stimulus money.
With state revenues battered by the recession — there have been 17 consecutive months of declines in sales tax revenue compared to the same month in the previous year — Bredesen said the upcoming budget “will be the toughest of my time as governor.”
Tennessee budget gap could reach $1.5 billion next year » The Commercial Appeal
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