 | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
« Our Friends, The Saudis | Main | The Start of Something New » February 1, 2005Bredesen Budget Proposes Large Spending Increase
Last night, Bredesen released his proposed budget plan for the 2005-06 fiscal year, a $25.1 billion whopper of a budget that is fully $3 billion larger than his first budget just two years ago of just $22.1 billion. (News coverage from the Nashville City Paper here, and from the Tennessean here. The governor's press release is here.) The $25.1 billion figure includes federal dollars, In terms of just appropriations from state revenue, Bredesen's new budget proposes to spend $11.24 billion - a $1.33 billion increase over the $9.88 billion in state tax revenue Bredesen spent in fiscal year 2003-04. That spending increase – $1,334,814,500 more than last year's budget (FY 2003-04) – would be a 13.5 percent increase in spending in just two years. In fiscal year 2001-02 - the last budget before Bredesen became governor - the state of Tennessee spent $19.28 billion, including $9.27 billion from state tax revenue. That means that under Bredesen's proposed budget, the state will have increased spending by 30 percent overall and by 21 percent for just state revenue in just three years. Tennessee can not afford to grow spending from state tax dollars at a rate of 7 percent per year without eventually requiring a tax increase. After all, Bredesen's own budget proposal for this year projects tax revenue growth of 3.8 percent in fiscal year 2005-06. While it is laudable that the governor has managed to avoid a major general tax increase (although he did hit the business community with a $75 million tax hike last year), it is unclear how Tennessee can sustain Bredesen's rapid rate of spending growth without a tax increase. Links You Might Need: Posted in Tennessee Budget & Tax Policy
| Linked By |
Please support HobbsOnline by doing your online shopping at Amazon.com Comments
Post a comment
Comments Policy: Your comment is subject to deletion if it is off-topic or includes foul language or personal attack. Readers, please email me if you find comments that include egregious violations of this policy. Comments may not post immediately - do not post twice!
|
|||||||||||
Lost in the miasma of positive press coverage surrounding Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's "state of the state" speech and new budget proposal released last night is this simple, unavoidable - and unaffordable - fact: Bredesen is growing Tennessee's state budget faster than tax revenue is growing, and he has been doing so since taking office in January of 2003.