December 9, 2007

Gov. Pass-the-Buck

Gov. Pass-the-Buck today blamed the legislature for the state's revenue shortfall, claiming it over-estimated revenues for the current fiscal year. But the budget passed by the legislature was not significantly different than the budget requested by Gov. Phil Bredesen.

The fiscal truth is that Gov. Bredesen took last year''s $1.5 billion surplus and turned it into this year's $136 million shortfall just three months into the fiscal year because his mammoth budget request grew the state budget by $723 million more than the state constitution allows. The constitution includes a provision, the "Copeland Cap," which limits the annual growth of state spending to the rate of growth of the state's economy, which is measured by the rate of growth of personal income in the state. In short, the Copeland Cap is designed to keep government from not growing faster than the ability of the taxpayers of Tennessee to pay for it without a tax increase.

There is a loophole by which the legislature can exceed the Copeland Cap, however, and the Bredesen administration took advantage of it.

Last year, Bredesen not only grew spending $723 million over the cap, he also raised taxes by nearly $250 million, with higher taxes on cigarettes and a new tax on propane for your backyard barbecue grill.

The Bredesen administration then compounded the error by lying to the legislature about how much it was exceeding Copeland by - claiming it exceeded the cap by only $53.7 million. The administration did that by violating state law in how to calculate the amount of spending over the cap, according to a recent opinion issued by the attorney general.

The state's current fiscal mess is Bredesen's fault.