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« It's Not Like the Economy is a Big News Story These Days... | Main | Race Roundup » July 21, 2008Bredesen: I Didn't See That Coming
According to The Tennessean, only about 1,400 state workers have applied for the state's buyout as of the end of last week, which is well short of the goal of nearly 2,300. The deadline for state workers to accept the buyout offer is Aug. 5. :"The numbers are not stacking up yet, and the major impact of that is that it opens up the possibility of having to do something more unpleasant - which is the form of actual layoffs - later on in the year," [Bredesen] said.The surprising thing is that it never ocurred to Bredesen, with his much-vaunted business acumen, that the same worsening economy that was forcing the state to offer buyouts to save money would cause people to be less likely to be willing to quit their job. The current situation was entirely predictable. Well, except to Gov. Bredesen, who tried to take the easy way out and offer buyouts rather than make hard choices about personnel cuts. Buyouts would have worked if the economy had been roaring along. But back when the economy was roaring along, instead of managing for the next inevitable downturn, Bredesen was rushing to add employees and expand programs as fast as he could. Posted in Tennessee Government News
Comments
I was a little shocked to see the videos of the briefings on the legislative web site of the details of dealing with the budget shortfall. You are exactly right to put the blame on the governor even though the legislature should also be held responsible. The problem was coming before the legislature even met and could be forecasted by revenue shortfalls in 2007 that were nearly across every category. The legislature did very little to respond during their deliberations on the budget and it looked to me as if they conducted business as usual. The governor and his administration practically ran the show in the last week or so of the legislative session. Some legislators wanted to charge the recession with the taxpayers checkbook and economic development programs but the finance commissioner reminded them that according to their (Keynesian)economic theories, that would only work if it was borrowed money. Posted by: Danny L. Newton at July 22, 2008 11:25 AMPost a comment
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Gov. Bredesen announced today that the state's voluntary buyout program for state employees is not going as well as anticipated, and so there may have to be involuntary layoffs. The surprising thing is that he expected otherwise.