DCS Budget Hearing November 19, 2008

     The governor started this out, but calling DCS the most problematic about of the departments.  He went on to explain that any cuts made here are going to be painful.  The vast majority of the funds spent here going into case management and providing funds to custodial providers.
     Outside of any cuts made by [...]

You Know It’s Bad When… November 19, 2008

     …The governor is telling ECD they are going to have to slow down for the time being.  This past year, the governor set aside $100 million to lure Volkswagen to Chattanooga and for other programs.  Well, the state got VW here and there are several undisclosed offers pending, including one for a megasite in [...]

TDOT Budget November 18, 2008

     In many waysit appears that TDOT is the lucky one, because it has a dedicated funding source in the gas tax, and it also gets a decent chunk of money in federal funding.  However, that doesn’t paint the whole picture.  In the first quarter of the fiscal year, TDOT is $10 million short in revenue, [...]

Budget Hearings Day 2 November 18, 2008

    TDOT is just getting underway here.  But I have  a couple of notes from the Agriculture hearing.  Apparently, this is not a new figure, but it was news to me.  The governor told the Dept. of Agriculture to start thinking of cuts “north of 10 percent”.  At one time he told them “between 10 [...]

Layoffs Are a Possibility November 17, 2008

     After last week’s announcement that the budget shortfall would likely amount to $800 million and a 10 percent reduction would be necessary in almost every department, I kept thinking “How realistic is it to make across-the-board 10 percent cuts without talking about personnel reductions?”  Over the past few months, the governor has stressed that [...]

Civics Lesson Tidbits November 17, 2008

     The students are asking good questions in this interactive civics lesson and we’ve learned quite a few tidbits of budget information during this.  The governor was asked about pre-K funding, and he said he couldn’t even guarantee funding for pre-K would stay flat.  He says adding new classrooms is not going to happen in [...]

Budget Hearings: K-12 Education November 17, 2008

    Governor Bredesen kicked off his annual budget hearings this morning with Education stepping up to the plate.  The Dept. of Education is asking the state for more than $100 million in new money.  $80 million of that would go to fund inflationary costs in the BEP.   The governor said he was going to “break [...]

Unemployment Backlog November 14, 2008

     Unemployment in Tennessee is at 7.2 percent, with the latest numbers due out next week.  This is the highest it has been in two decades.  Because of that, more people are calling to file claims for unemployment benefits than the state can actually answer.  People we’ve talked to say they’ve tried for weeks to [...]

In Writing November 11, 2008

     I was just at the Capitol interviewing possible-speaker-to-be Rep. Jason Mumpower about the $800 million budget problem.  While I was there, he handed me a piece of paper with 50 signatures.  The TN GOP is trying to put to rest speculation that one of them will cross over and keep Naifeh in power.  This [...]

It Just Keeps Getting Bigger November 10, 2008

     In August, the state feared they might have to make an additional $200 million in cuts.  A month and a half later, the governor was saying it was looking more like $600 million in cuts.  Today, he’s saying it’s even worse: a possible $800 million shortfall in this fiscal year.  That’s really, really bad.
     [...]