NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen warned today that plummeting revenues will force him to make at least some layoffs to balance his proposed 2008/2009 budget, but he declined for now to provide specific numbers.
“You can’t get here from there, there from here, in the budget without doing some layoffs,” Gov. Bredesen told Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce members here Wednesday.
He said the layoffs will be done “with great sensitivity to the needs of the workforce.”
Gov. Bredesen later said that, within the last week or so, additional falling revenues have added $150 million more to next year’s shortfall, bringing it to about $550 million, a figure cited Tuesday in some estimates by economists appearing before the State Funding Board.
University of Tennessee economist William Fox said Tuesday that the state might be facing a $600 million shortfall in a worst-case scenario should sales- tax revenues fall as they did the first three months of this year.
Gov. Bredesen said there would be no pay raises.
“I wouldn’t lay somebody off and give somebody else a pay raise,” he said.
After the governor’s remarks, Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz said the shortfall could reach as high as $650 million.
The governor is delaying plans to present a revised budget until May 12 when he intends to address a joint convention of the General Assembly. The budget goes into effect on July 1.
Andy Sher is a Nashville-based staff writer covering Tennessee state government and politics for the Times Free Press. A Washington correspondent from 1999-2005 for the Times Free Press, Andy previously headed up state Capitol coverage for The Chattanooga Times, worked as a state Capitol reporter for The Nashville Banner and was a contributor to The Tennessee Journal, among other publications. Andy worked for 17 years at The Chattanooga Times covering police, health care, county government, ...
My first comment was removed by Ksloan whom conveniently could not be contacted. Basically the reason was free speech applies only when your not offending someone. Proof that the powers to be would rather have their backside kissed than hear the truth. I suggested the governer and his staff take a paycut or quit the wasting of money on idiotic programs and funding of pointless causes rather than taking the budget shortfall out on the working class. I suppose this will be removed also as free speech is at the discresion of the censors.
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