Pam's points: It's all about money, air and taxes: Jingle, jingle

Here comes glutton gifting

Americans are expected to spend $619 billion during this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation.

About $50 billion of that whooping expense is likely to be plunked down on store counters and swiped off on cash registers during this Black Friday weekend.

By some accounts, that would be about a 4 percent increase over spending last year. This year Black Friday began earlier than ever at many stores -- 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day at Kmart and in the evening hours of Thanksgiving at J.C. Penney and Best Buy. Poor employees!

Gasping at new air rules

Bontrast our expected spending for the holiday season with our expected spending to make our nation's air cleaner and healthier -- a gift indeed.

Now, that cleaner air is a true bargain: $3.9 billion by 2025 if the most highest (read here, most lax) standard is adopted, according to EPA. And if the lowest (read here, strictest) standard is adopted, that cost to our nation's industries -- and then of course to us-- grows to $15 billion.

If any place in the world can see the value of cleaner air, it is Chattanooga. After two decades for being listed among the top 10 industrial cities in the U.S., Chattanooga in 1969 also made the top of EPA's list of cities with the most polluted air. Citizens here took our brown air for granted until one evening when Walter Cronkite announced on the most watched nightly news show that Chattanooga had been named the "dirtiest city in America." The new label woke us up, and looking at our crystalline air today, aren't we grateful? But we can do more, as we still have smoggy summer days here when public health and air officials have to warn us to stay indoors.

Of course, many conservatives and some of the nation's manufacturers are crying foul over the costs of stricter air regulations, but you can't tell me that, as a nation of rabid consumers, we can afford to spend $619 billion on gifts and pleasures but not somewhere between almost $4 billion and $15 billion to breathe easier.

Haslam's pulling for Black Friday

And, of course, while we're all out there shopping and spending money, it might be helpful to remember that as we shop, we're helping state government (education, road building, etc.), too. Just listen to the jingle of that sales tax adding up.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam -- who recently became the new chairman of the Republican Governors Association, taking the place of The Outlaw Jersey Whale and blow-hard Chris Christie -- almost certainly hopes shoppers take to the malls like moths to flame this weekend.

Haslam on Monday began the first rounds of public budget hearings, fraught with the perils of some fellow Republicans who want to reduce virtually all of Tennessee's taxes, including the sales tax, while plenty of critics say previous state spending cuts harmed state services and robbed teachers and other public employees of promised raises.

Haslam has a reputation that's about as opposite of Chris Christie's as one can get. Christie often plays the crusty, snarling tough guy -- telling townspeople to "sit down and shut up," belittling Democrats and even Republicans who cross him, and hiring folks who seem to think closing bridge lanes and withholding funds are acceptable political blackmail.

Haslam, on the other hand, is known as the ever-optimistic Mr. Nice Guy, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press state capitol reporter Andy Sher. Last week, Politico even dubbed Haslam the "Anti-Christie."

Optimism has never been more needed -- both in politics and in state government.

This past August, in preparation for balancing the state budget, Haslam ordered departments to submit detailed plans for cutting 7 percent from their budgets. That was after the state wound up with a $300 million shortfall in the 2014 budget year that ended June 30. The actual amount of any reduction hinges on how much state tax collections rebound. And 53 cents of every state dollar comes from sales taxes.

Jingle, jingle.

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