It’s 5:00pm and I’m going to lay out the information that was given to reporters earlier in the day.
Buyouts: You’re not going to get the specifics today. The governor wants to use $50 million to offer the buyouts, starting on June 6th. I did the math, and that comes out to an average of $25,000 per employee. Since we don’t know the specifics I can’t tell you how much of that is cash, how much is insurance benefits or other incentives. I’m just working with the basic numbers here.
Salaries: The state will save $71.8 million dollars from not giving employees a 2 percent increase. The governor is also proposing some changes to the state’s health insurance plan. Copays are going to increase by $5 for prescriptions, and doctor’s visits. The price of an emergency room visit without admittance to the hospital will go from $50 to $75. Deductibles on some plans will go from $300 to $350.
Economic Development: The state wants to take $100 million from reserves and put it in a contingency fund for offering incentives to companies who move here (Volkswagen, maybe?). Commissioner Goetz didn’t get specific on how many or what types of companies may be moving here.
Capital Outlay: Maintenance funds of the Board of Regents ($23 million) and the University of Tennessee ($14.6 million) are going to be cut. $53 million dollars worth of maintenance and small improvements will be cut from Corrections, and $17 million from statewide maintenance.
TennCare: $80 million is being cut that was going to go to restarting the medically needy program. There will be a limited start up within the funds available, but originally the state was predicting that 60,000 would be enrolled.
And I’ve already mentioned the $55 million higher education cuts.
