January 11, 2008

Thin-Skinned Phil

Tennessee's hyper-sensitively thin-skinned Gov. Phil Bredesen lashed out at Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey yesterday because Ramsey had the temerity to question the spending of more than $10 million in tax dollars to build a lavish underground party ballroom at the Governor's Mansion. WSMV reports...

Gov. Phil Bredesen criticized Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey on Thursday for being the lone holdout in the Tennessee Building Commission's vote to clear the way for construction of an underground hall at the governor's mansion.

The hall is part of a $19 million project to renovate the mansion that has drawn objections from neighbors. Of that amount, about $13 million has been provided by the state. About $9 million has been raised from private donations, but only $6.4 million has been allocated.

"I was disappointed at Sen. Ramsey's remarks at the meeting today," Bredesen said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I thought they were unnecessary and inaccurate, and I think very partisan."

"I thought he was more of a standup guy than that," Bredesen said. Bredesen, a Democrat, attributed what he called partisan attacks on the project to the political climate of an election year.

A challenge to Gov. Bredesen: Demonstrate where Sen. Ramsey was inaccurate.

Ramsey said the project's cost had ballooned. It has. Ramsey said private donations collected for renovation of the existing mansion were later transferred (on paper) to pay for the underground ballroom and replaced with tax dollars. They were - and state records prove it. Ramsey questioned how the underground ballroom project could be considered a state project in order to get around local zoning control, but considered a private project being built by the 501(c)3 non-profit Tennessee Residence Foundation in order to get around the requirement that state construction projects be competitively bid. That is an accurate description of the legal gray area in which the project rests.

Stop being hyper-sensitive, Phil, when the cost to taxpayers of your wife's mansion project spiraling out of control leads to people asking questions and trying to be more fiscally responsible than you. I attended the State Building Commission meeting where Ramsey made the remarks and asked the questions that so irritated the governor. Before it took up the mansion project, the Commission zipped through a lengthy agenda of other building projects around the state, rubber-stamping most of them without asking a single question. Ramsey deserves praise for asking questions.

Rather than criticize Ramsey for doing the job he was elected to do, Phil, you ought to spend some time coming up with a plausible excuse for why it makes sense to spend more than $11 million in tax dollars on the mansion/ballroom project at the same time that the state faces a revenue shortfall and many departments face budget cuts.

Indeed, some departments already are cutting spending on vital services for some of Tennessee's most needy. The Department of Mental Retardation Services recently cut funding for support coordination, residential services, behavior services; physical, occupational and speech therapy; nursing and nutrition and personal assistance for the state's mentally retarded population by $2,479,081, of which one third, or about $800,000, is state dollars.

Priorities, Phil, priorities.