January 8, 2008

Numbers

Good budget news from the state government today: The state won't get to blow all of last year's surplus after all, and likely won't have one to blow next year either. The Tennessean puts a little different spin on it:

State programs could need $440 million in new funds in the next budget year, but the state may see just $300 million to $350 million in tax growth. The grim financial outlook was presented to the House Finance Committee today by state Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz and state Treasurer Dale Sims.

In addition, state agencies are being asked in an official letter today to hold down their costs even more as the state faces a shortfall in the current budget year that ranges from $147 million to $240 million, Goetz said.

They have until Jan. 22 to tell budget officials where they plan to trim, and they shouldn't expect to get that money back for the 2008-09 budget year. In all, state agencies are being asked to look for another $44 million in savings. Higher education and the BEP are exempt, Goetz said.

And a tight budget will force the Bredesen administration, which has spent profligately over the last few years and even raised taxes to fund a raft of new programs, to restrain its spending appetite just a bit this year.

It may even keep the administration from once again exceeding the constitutional cap on the annual growth of state spending, a cap that this year's budget would have exceeded by more than $700 million.

Meanwhile, if Gov. Bredesen is looking for a place to start the trimming, there's a $10 million state construction project planned in Oak Hill that is frivolous and unnecessary.