State can afford to tighten its belt

It’s difficult to figure the state of Tennessee. It was just last year when the state, drunk with economic prosperity, decided it had so much money it could afford to give lawmakers millions of dollars to sprinkle around.

Volunteer fire departments, non-profit organizations, and education scholarships benefited from king-sized donations, thanks to our state senators and representatives. Morrison Library, for example, was given $49,000 from state Sen. Jerry Cooper. This is a monstrous donation for a part-time library open some 20 hours a week.

In all, 33 state senators distributed $9.9 million, while 99 state representatives handed out another $9.9 million. That was mere pocket change, we were told, for a state with a smorgasbord of funding.

One year later, Tennessee’s wealth has been replaced by woe. The state is facing a funding crisis and Gov. Phil Bredesen is taking a wrecking ball to state spending. He’s preparing to slash programs and encourage some 2,000 longtime employees to take buyouts.

The way I see it, the state can afford to tighten its belt. And while I don’t like to take anyone’s job lightly, I do have questions about how the state conducts business.

One of my problems stems from a story I wrote for Wednesday’s edition. With all the talk about state payroll cuts, I was curious how many state employees, barring educators, work here in Warren County.

So I picked up the phone and began to call the various state offices around town. What I discovered was brick wall after brick wall. Department supervisors, ranging from the employment office to the health department, were unable to answer this simple question: ‘How many state employees work there’?

It wasn’t because these people didn’t know the answer. Due to state policy, they could not give me the answer.

So I was forced to track down the select few state employees authorized to talk to me. This involved contacting officials from three cities ‘ Nashville, Cookeville and Chattanooga. It was a tremendous source of aggravation, although I’m sure the Standard’s long-distance provider appreciates this state policy.

In the interest of full disclosure, the district attorney’s office and Rock Island State Park answered my simple employee question here locally. They apparently are the only two offices that operate with any consideration for efficiency.

What angers me about this policy more than anything is the layers of protection the state has established to prevent the free flow of information. Why can’t the health department director tell me how many people work there? Why do I have to waste time and money calling someone else? What does the state have to hide? If the state is running such a tight ship, why are there all these needless middle men?

This is precisely the reason people have a natural distrust of government. Ask a simple question and get the run-around.

I don’t want to talk to a spokesperson who couldn’t drive to McMinnville without using a map. Let me talk to the front-line people right here who are doing the job each and every day.

As long as the state operates thanks to tax dollars ‘ and it always will ‘ there is no reason for any sort of secrecy. When the state goes private and suspends all state taxes, it can do whatever it wants.

Until that time, I’ll be here with my simple questions. And I’ll most likely have to call around to several state employees to find the person with permission to give me the answer. It doesn’t provide an image of a lean, open government at work.

James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191.