Budget work starts in earnest this month
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are waiting until mid-month to get a better idea of how much money they’ll have before beginning serious work on the governor’s proposed $23.8 billion budget.
If revenues continue coming on strong, they might have some extra money that could be spent on:
—increasing the amount of money nursing home residents get;
—fighting the state’s increasingly scary methamphetamine problem; or
—paying more to attract young public defenders and prosecutors.
But House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and other leaders promise there will be no “pork” projects like new ballfield lights or fire trucks for individual legislators’ districts.
The only constitutional requirement legislators have is to approve a balanced budget, but they still have major issues on the agenda, such as workers’ compensation changes and the governor’s TennCare overhaul.
Lawmakers had hoped to finish up in early May because it’s an election year and they want to get home to raise money and campaign.
They moved up the date of the State Funding Board meeting to April 15, when they’ll hear estimates from economists on how much in tax money will come in for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends June 30, and in the ensuing fiscal year.
Then the budget proposed by Gov. Phil Bredesen in February will begin moving through committees. It could be voted on as early as April 26, according to Senate Budget Subcommittee Chairman Jim Kyle, D-Memphis.
Few significant changes are likely because lawmakers, weary from battles over taxes, happily ceded much of the responsibility to Bredesen when he took office last year and balanced his first budget by redirecting cuts of 9 percent to most departments into K-12 education and TennCare.
This year’s proposal includes nearly $200 million in department cuts, but provides $128 million for state employee pay raises and $174 million in education improvements, among other things.
“We appear to be in a better financial position, but we’re still not out of the woods,” said House Majority Leader Kim McMillan, D-Clarksville.
“It’s a tight budget. There are significant budget cuts and program reductions,” Kyle said.
“I believe from my perspective the governor is being as fair as he can in his effort, but it’s our responsibility to look at it in detail. It’s our intention to move with efficiency and effectiveness on the budget and go home.”
Several lawmakers, including House Finance Chairman Tommy Head, D-Clarksville, would like to reduce the amount of one-time money being used to fund recurring expenses. Most of the nonrecurring money — $77 million — is federal funds for families on welfare.
If the Legislature enacts changes to the state’s workers’ compensations system, which the governor is pushing, there likely will be some cost that must be included in the budget.
And Tennessee is having difficulty attracting and retaining public defenders and prosecutors, which is causing delays in the courts. McMillan said legislators may want to increase some salaries to try to compete with the private bar.
There’s also talk of helping poor nursing home residents.
Since 1988, Medicaid-eligible residents have been allocated a $30 monthly allowance to help pay for items that the nursing homes don’t provide, but they say it’s not enough to pay for such things as basic toiletries. In most states, the allowance is $50, according to the AARP. Raising it to that level in Tennessee would cost about $6.4 million in state and federal funds.
“Those are the kinds of things we will be working with the finance committees to solve after we look at the revenue estimates and have a better sense of where we are,” said Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz.