Some pain avoided, but budget still stings
NASHVILLE — When Gov. Phil Bredesen first heard how the budget reductions he sought would hurt the state’s neediest citizens — like no more dietary supplements for people dying of kidney disease — he wished aloud for “a stiff drink.”
But the $21.5 billion budget taking effect Tuesday won’t make many of the painful cuts described in February’s public budget hearings, so poor patients with end-stage renal disease still will get nutritional products like Ensure.
Departments and agencies carved 9 percent, or about $200 million, from their spending but tried to minimize the impact. In some cases, they found funds from the federal government or shifted around state money.
“That’s what I always hoped would happen,” Bredesen said of his first state budget. “For most ordinary Tennesseans, they’re going to see zero difference in their lives as a result of these cuts.”
But making good on a campaign pledge that the state needed better management and not more money meant “there are still hurtful things in there,” Bredesen acknowledged.
The governor counts among the most painful his decision not to replace $9 million the federal government had been providing for Head Start pre-kindergarten classes for low-income children.
Instead of abolishing any of the 150 pre-K programs, the Tennessee Education Department plans to spread $6 million in state funds among them all so they can continue operating, albeit on a shoestring budget. Local governments may pick up some slack and the state may relax some rules so the classes can operate more cheaply.
“These programs have a very positive impact on these children’s ability to perform adequately as they get older,” said Patrick Smith, the Education Department’s director of policy and legislation. On average, Head Start children perform in the third grade as well as or better than their peers, he said.
Bredesen said he knows the program is worthwhile, “but we’ve got to hold the line.”
When the federal government starts a program it “almost inevitably” stops funding a few years later, which forces state officials who want to keep it to pony up the money, Bredesen said.
“I’ve always felt we have to be hard-nosed. If the federal money goes away, the program goes away and it’s back to ground zero.”
Another cut affecting the poor will reduce assistance to families trying to get off welfare to no more than the federal government requires.
“We won’t cut any core services, but there are some extra things we think were helping people that we’ll have to cut,” said Gina Lodge, commissioner of the Department of Human Services.
Tennessee had been providing subsidies to people getting General Educational Development degrees or staying in jobs a certain amount of time, and covering the cost of work uniforms and day care transportation for some “Families First” clients.
“You can’t take someone with a fourth-grade reading level, a drug problem and several children and put them to work immediately. You’ve got to get them clean, get them counseling and education, and other help,” Lodge said.
Lodge was pleased the General Assembly found alternate funds for programs originally on the chopping block that help protect against abuse of the elderly and allow some seniors who would otherwise be forced into nursing homes or mental health institutions to remain independent.
The Department of Children’s Services reduced spending directed at keeping children out of state custody. For example, it cut $300,000 in payments to supplement costs such as rent for a grandmother who takes in a child to keep him out of foster care.
But department officials said each cut was reviewed carefully.
“We’re trying to have a minimal impact on children and families. The services that were cut, we’re trying to supplement in other areas. We’re trying to pick up the pieces,” said DCS spokeswoman Carla Aaron.
If the department can’t provide the needed resources for a family, a case worker will try to direct them elsewhere, she said.
Other cuts will create inconvenience.
For example, some Tennesseans will have to travel farther to get their driver’s licenses because the state Department of Safety is eliminating roving crews of driver’s license examiners serving rural counties.
And it might take an extra day to get an appointment at a county health department’s office or a longer wait for drug or alcohol abuse treatment.
But Rick Frazier, deputy commissioner for the state Health Department, said “in most cases people won’t notice” the impact of its $8.1 million reduction in state and federal funds.
The department had to find alternative cuts when the governor asked for some funds to be restored — including more than $1 million in financial assistance for hemophiliacs and people with chronic kidney disease — and others were added back by the General Assembly — such as $205,200 for an educational program about epilepsy.
“After all was said and done … we did the best job we could in working through the process and having the most minimal impact we could,” he said.
“But like I told the governor when we first discussed the cuts, I can give you all kinds of logic and methodology of why to cut or what to cut, but if that’s my child who’s a hemophiliac or on a renal dialysis machine, this is the most important thing the state provides, and I couldn’t care less about roads and parks and anything else,” Frazier said.
Details of budget, cuts effective Tuesday
NASHVILLE (AP) — Key points of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s first budget, a $21.5 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Tuesday:
• State taxes provide $9.8 billion of the total budget.
• No new taxes or tax increases.
• A $132 million decrease in the amount of state money that will be spent.
• An entire budget increase of $5 million over the current year’s spending.
• Transfer of $65 million in road money to the general fund.
• Reduction of $37 million in the amount of tax revenue shared with local governments.
• An additional $111 million for K-12 education, including $26.7 million to improve salaries of the lowest paid teachers.
• An additional $350 million for TennCare.
• Spending cuts of 9 percent — totaling about $200 million — to most state departments and agencies. The greatest savings come from eliminating 1,200 vacant positions and laying off 376 workers.
• Higher education takes the biggest hit, $102 million, but is able to offset much of the impact by raising tuition.
• Department of Children’s Services cuts $13.6 million, including $6 million by closing the Tennessee Preparatory School.
• Department of Health cuts $8.1 million, including as much as $2.2 million in state and federal funds for alcohol and drug treatment.
• Department of Human Services cuts $6.1 million, plus $5 million in maintenance of effort funds for the Families First program to move people off welfare.
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