Just when many Tennesseans came to believe that tougher economic times might force the hand not only of our State General Assembly, but also that of Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to reign in the spending levels in Nashville, Finance Commissioner Mark Emkes has told the General Assembly that some $48 million worth of cuts to State spending is money that can now be spent. The reason is because the federal government has acknowledges owing the State of Tennessee some $82 million in back Medicare payments, since it would seem that federal officials mistakenly classified thousands of Tennesseans as Medicaid patients (a program in which the State pays part of the cost) who were really Medicare patients-which meant that those costs should have been paid by the federal government. Since the feds now owe the taxpayers of Tennessee such a huge lump of cash, we are being told that we don't have to cut quite as much from the budget as we had thought.

 

Many of the programs that were on the list of those to be cut were certainly worthwhile, the chief of which were those services provided to mentally challenged citizens and the mentally ill. No one has yet explained, however, how the State can make financial decisions based merely on the good word of the federal government. The Executive Branch of the current federal apparatus in Washington can't even get their story straight on how Osama bin Laden was captured, but they want us to believe they will pay us the money they admit that they owe us in full. The State of Tennessee is supposed to make budget decisions based on the word of a federal government that can't even pay its bills? If Washington does pony up, are we simply basing this year's budget on a one-time windfall of cash that will not be there next year? Our State government should simply put off until tomorrow what they need to do today and save the people much greater pain in the next fiscal year-if that happens to be the case.