December 4, 2002

The Sundquist Legacy

Here's a column I wrote last summer. You want to know what Gov. Sundquist's fiscal management legacy is? This is it:

A year ago, the Legislature grappled with how to balance the budget and found the state had enough state, federal and other money to spend $18.4 billion this fiscal year. A year later, we find our state spending an extra $500 million to $600 million. More than a year ago, Neel's predecessor was truthful enough to admit the extra millions the state found were "unbudgeted dollars." The state constitution prohibits the state from spending a dollar without the Legislature passing a law that specifically appropriates it, but the administration spends surplus funds anyway.

Given a chance to explain, Neel declined to answer. Yet he - and the governor he works for - want you to trust them with an income tax. Trust, however, grows best in the soil of credibility, and the soil in the executive branch is thin indeed.