During the last week of the Tennessee legislative session, Governor Phil Bredesen branded the Republican budget counter-proposal "stupid" because of the amount of things in the budget that would have to be cut. This was just awful, both House and Senate Democrats crowed. Governor Bredesen began his 2010-2011 budget hearings this week, and apparently stupid is the new intelligence:
Keeping education and economic development commitments whole, of course, requires deep cutting in other areas, such as the Department of Children's Services or the Department of Mental Health, which were aided by federal stimulus money this year.
Bredesen has taken some partisan criticism for the budget situation. Senate Republican leader Mark Norris, for example, recently declared Bredesen should have made deeper cuts in the current budget in accord with a GOP proposal that the Democratic governor branded "stupid" during the legislative session.
Now the Day of Reckoning which many Republicans (including those who voted against the budget) warned about is here. If many of these cuts had been enacted last year when there was stimulus money padding the new budget, this year's round of cuts-which will be necessary to balance the budget as mandated by Tennessee's constitution-wouldn't be nearly as deep or broad. As things now stand, virtually no areas of State government will be unaffected by the cuts which will be coming.
Governor Phil Bredesen
(D-Tennessee)
During the last legislative session, the Governor delayed presenting a budget until federal stimulus money arrived. When that money did appear on the scene, it wasn't nearly as much as what some had projected, leading to cuts no one had foreseen, and "
technical corrections." Instead of waiting until mid-June to pass the budget and adjourn, the General Assembly could have been out as early as the second week of May. This year, there will be little reason to delay the inevitable. And what will Phil Bredesen's final legacy be?
A budget filled with cuts to education and mental health, among other things, the worst of which could have been averted if the original proposed cuts had been made the previous year to begin with-but Phil thought that was "stupid." And the fiscal stew created by cleaning up Bredesen's mess? That will be left to his likely Republican successor.
How convenient!
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Nice try, Oatney. You can pull your nose out of Mark Norris’ posterior now.
The state of Tennessee bases its budget on collection data regarding sales tax, franchise & excise taxes and other sources. Bredesen simply held off moving the following year’s budget until he had a larger pool of data on which to base the budget’s assumptions.
Contrary to the views of pointy headed conservatives sittin’ around the stove at the country store, Bredesen didn’t file a budget until he had a clearer picture of what would likely happen to the U.S. economy.
Today, we have people like Norris and Oatney using 20/20 hindsight to pull op-ed pieces on the budget out of their hind quarters. The reason Norris and the Senate Republicans couldn’t get their “stupid” budget alternative passed was because their Republican colleagues in the House realized the Senate’s grandstanding was indeed “stupid”.
Nice try, frustrated Democrat!
This budget is going to be last year's original Senate proposal on steroids times 100. Precisely what those opposed to Bredesen's proposal warned would happen. We aren't psychic-I was at the Capitol during budget week and saw the numbers myself, and they didn't add up. We can't use stimulus money this year to remove ourselves from reality as was done last year. This time, we must pay the consequences of the Governor's refusal to engage serious cuts then to save disaster now.
Some way to go out for Phil.
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