Tennessee Budget Shortfall
Published: December 12, 2008
Bredesen, a Democrat, has seen the budget picture deteriorate rapidly over the last six months.
In August, Bredesen told department heads to prepare for a 3 percent cut. That figure was revised in November to a 10 percent.
Since then, the worsening outlook has led the governor to dial up those cuts, first to 15 percent and now to up to 20 percent.
Pre-kindergarten through high school education is the only area the governor wants to protect from the deep spending cuts.
Bredesen says the budget crunch will likely require a further reduction in the state work force, either through layoffs, buyouts or extending a hiring freeze.
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Reader Reactions
Everyone talks about the shortfall, But what is causing it? Is it inflation? When was the last time it was balanced? Why are we adding programs if it is pushing us over the budget? We have a state lottery why not use that to help fill in the shortfall? Maybe the lottery could fill the void until we can get it balanced again.
I hope the reduction in State workers causes legal action against the Governor and the State due to lack of services or any injury or death that is a result of not having enough workers to do thier jobs.
You can only cut jobs so far until you no longer get the work done. Why don’t they cut programs or expenses and not employee’s. Cut some of the wasteful spending and keep the employee’s working. At some point all state services will simply stall and get even more back logged that nothing gets done. It is already bad and will get worse. Bredesen needs to be removed from office.
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