BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
Republicans Helping Bust Tennessee Spending Cap Legislation Makes Tax Hike, Income Tax, More Likely
NASHVILLE - The Tennessee state Senate finance committee voted 10-0 Tuesday for Senate Bill 3456, legislation that would allow the state of Tennessee to spend $105.1 million more this fiscal year than the state constitution permits under its provision limited the growth of spending to the rate of growth of the state's economy. Identical legislation is pending in the state House finance committee.
The state constitution caps annual year-over-year spending growth by the legislature based on the rate of the state's economic growth, defined by statute as the rate of personal income growth. The goal is to prevent the cost of government from growing faster than the people's ability to fund it. When spending rises faster than the people's ability to pay for it, tax increases are inevitable.
Unfortunately, the constitution permits the legislature to bust the cap by a simple majority vote, making a good cap easy to break.
Over the last two decades, the legislature has voted to exceed the spending cap multiple times, by a total of $3.1 billion. During the Sundquist administration, the cap was exceeded three times by a total of $1.09 billion, leading directly to a billion-dollar tax increase at the tail end of the Sundquist administration after the economy slowed.
This year, with a rapidly growing revenue surplus now estimated to total at least $256 million this fiscal year, the legislature and Gov. Phil Bredesen are rushing to spend the extra millions even at the cost of making a tax increase more likely during the next economic slowdown.
The Senate's Finance, Ways & Means Committee has 11 members, of which five are Republicans, meaning at least four Republicans voted for this fiscally reckless bill that makes it more likely your taxes will be raised in the future. The legislation even makes a state income tax more likely. I am working to determine which 10 voted for the bill. They need to be held to account for helping perpetuate one of the legislature's worse fiscal tendencies.
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NASHVILLE - The Tennessee state Senate finance committee voted 10-0 Tuesday for 