June 12, 2007

State Budget Nearly $1 Billion Over the Cap

All hell may be about to break loose in Tennessee, politically speaking, regarding the state budget. But, you say, the legislature has already passed the budget, the debate is over, right?

Well, perhaps not. My sources tell me new $28 billion state budget just passed by the legislature is not a mere $53.7 million over the state's constitutionally mandated "Copeland Cap" spending growth limit. Rather, it is almost $1 billion over the cap. The lying Bredesen administration has simply not followed the law in calculating the cap, even though the law and the constitution are clear - crystal clear - about how the cap is to be calculated. And the illegal budgeting and deception may have been going on for years.

The state constitution was amended in 1978 with this provision, called the "Copeland Cap" after state Rep. David Copeland, who sponsored it:

In no year shall the rate of growth of appropriations from state tax revenues exceed the estimated rate of growth of the state's economy as determined by law. No appropriation in excess of this limitation shall be made unless the General Assembly shall, by law containing no other subject matter, set forth the dollar amount and the rate by which the limit will be exceeded. (Article 2 Section 24)

I have been hammering away at the Copeland issue for more than six years now, in columns for Nashville InReview, the Nashville City Paper, and here on this blog. I've talked about it on Teddy Bart's radio show, the Phil Valentine show and other in media. I have known since way back in the heat of the Tennessee Income Tax War of the late 1990s that the bureaucracy was doing its best to ignore the constitution and the will of the people by routinely flouting the Copeland limit. And yet I had no idea just how bad it was.

You, Tennessee taxpayers, have been the marks for one of the biggest financial scams in history. And it all started with one little lie.

You may not hear any more about this for a few weeks, but know this: This is real. Mainstream media reporters know about it and have the facts. And they aren't the only ones. And you will hear more soon. And then you will either lose the last tattered shreds of faith you had in your state government or you will get furiously angry. Probably both.

Developing...

Update: State Rep. Stacey Campfield reveals a little more on his blog:

The busting of the Copeland cap was also done in such a way that it could easily lead to law suit. By breaking it as we did and with audio conformation from the administration previous to doing it (they admitted that what they were doing was not legal or even constitutional but they were going to do it anyway) we are just waiting for the paper work to be filed.

On January 20, 2007, Bredesen was sworn in for a second term with an oath to uphold the state's constitution. If he signs the budget passed by the Legislature, he will be violating that oath.