Tennessee agencies asked to prepare budgets with 3.5% cut
Tennessee state agencies need to prepare budgets this year with a 3.5 percent cut compared with last year, according to a new directive from the administration of Gov. Bill Haslam.
The news comes at a time when the state general fund has half a billion dollars more than anticipated, but the state faces mounting road projects and is exploring outsourcing facilities management at a wide array of state facilities.
Commissioner Larry Martin, head of the state Department of Finance and Administration, told department and agency leaders about the budget request Monday in a memo.
"Although 2014-2015 tax revenues were strong, the challenge remains to achieve operational efficiencies throughout state government and to secure the resources necessary to support education, TennCare and our valued state work force," Martin said in the memo.
After a news conference Tuesday, Haslam noted the administration frequently asks departments to present budgets with cuts. Last year it asked for a 7 percent cut; the request doesn't necessarily mean the governor will present a budget with cuts at any specific level.
"One of the important things about government is not just doing it the same way you always have. If you keep doing that, you'll just keep building and building and building on a government that was set up for a different world," Haslam said.
"So what we always want to do is every year go back in and make people be hard about looking at their budget: What are the things you're doing that you might not need to do or things that you're not doing that you should?"
On Thursday the state announced it's collected $605.7 million more in taxes than it anticipated in the past year, over-collecting $552.7 million in the general fund. That amount is dwarfed by the list of road projects facing the state; in recent years state officials estimated the project list topped $8 billion.
The request also comes at the same time the state is exploring a move to privatize potentially thousands of jobs across the state. Haslam's administration issued a request for information recently that asks for companies interested in managing operations at sites such as Tennessee prisons, state universities, state parks, National Guard locations and other facilities. Haslam said it's exploring whether the move would save money and create more efficiencies, but state Democrats and a union representing workers at colleges and universities blasted the move as detrimental to state employees.
Departments and agencies must submit their budgets back to the administration by Oct. 1.
Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.
