Best Governor in the country hands down. Growing tax collections, business friendly, presents balanced budgets and operates in the public view. Is Tenn. Care reform going as planned? No! But I bet this Governor will have a great plan in place by the end of his second term. This Governor has accomplished more in 3 years than the previous Governor did in eight. To name just a few- Settled litigation related to the BEP, passed Workers Comp. Reform, improved TDOT- an ongoing task, brought solvancy to the underground storage tank insurance fund, did something for TN CARE- an accomplishment that NO ONE REP. or DEMO. cared to take on.

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Improved TDOT? I was reading just the other day about improperly installed guardrails at a cost of taxpayers' millions, and potentially at a cost of drivers' lives. It seems TDOT doesn't have an effective quality-control mechanism. I'm wondering if that's because Bredesen took $65 million in funding away from TDOT.

Settled BEP litigation? For now. But there will be more BEP litigation to force the wholesale expansion of his new Pre-K boondoggle.

TennCare fixed by the end of his second term? That's five years from now. I thought he was a healthcare wiz.

Growing tax collections? The governor has ZERO impact on that. And he's only managed to balance budgets by stealing gas tax funds from TDOT and local revenue from cities and counties.

Now he's starting a Pre-K program funded by lottery money that was supposed to go to college scholarships.

And he raised taxes on the business community despite promising to not raise taxes in his first term. Oh, and the tax increase was retroactive, violating a provision of the state constitution.

Best governor in the country? Not by a long shot.

I don't think Bredesen is the best governor in the country. However:

Regarding Pre-K and the lottery: was I hallucinating in 2002, or was the consistently stated purpose of the "lottery amendment" to provide a lottery that would create revenue for college scholarships AND Pre-K? Are some people experiencing conveniently selective memory lapses in order to raise an uproar? Hmmm.

Regarding TDOT: I don't blame the guardrail scandal on Bredesen -- it was a private firm that was running away with our tax dollars and making roads extremely unsafe, and TDOT is typically just a front office for the road construction industry, so THAT's why there's no quality control. I can't say if the reforms for TDOT funding were the right ones or not, but ANYTHING done to bring their budget out of its unfairly protected status was probably a good start.

TennCare, I'll grant, has not been handled in the manner that was promised, and that's a major disappointment to a large number of Tennesseans.

Joe - The TDOT guardrail mess happened on Bredesen's watch. He's ultimately responsible. It would be interesting to find out if his slashing of TDOT's funding by $65 million (not to mention the reduced federal dollars that cost TDOT) resulted in fewer safety/quality inspections. If I was an investigative reporter for, say, WKRN or NewsChannel5, I'd be looking into that.

Regarding the lottery - it was to fund scholarships first and then leftover money be used for Pre-K. However, the scholarships are not fully funded yet, so dipping in to the lottery funds for Pre-K is not in keeping with what voters were told.

I am left wondering if a lawsuit on behalf of the people of Tennessee might halt the diversion of lottery funds to pre-k before scholarships are fully funded.

dear sir,,i would like to say that I think that the governor has been the worst
governor that we have ever had in tenn.
I voted for him and I am so sad to say that I supported such a heartless person
as him.old people are hurting because of him nad the way he has treated tenn care..
he said he would help the program but instead he has done more hurt to people of the lower class people whom could not help theis selves and futhermore now we are faced with a bigger problem than we have ever experenced in history..My wife was on tenn care because we could not afford and could not get coverage becauce she has diabets and high blood pressure.
we were paying for our tenncare, but now
we are without..I am disabled and on a fixed income and if i could get insurance it will cost $803.25 a month for her insurance ..there is no way we can afford this..He says cutting off most of the enrolles will allow more to be spent on school,well I differ with this .Our school was just fine as it is and if he was wanting to help us then go back to the ones who are going to suffer because of him,and that is the oneswho could not be insured or cannot afford insurance.I
will never vove democrat again as long as
I live because they don't have feelings for the poor.. thank you Kenneth R Paul