NASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Haslam warned Monday of "hard" choices ahead in Tennessee's upcoming 2011-12 budget as the state's new chief executive held his first hearings on state spending.
"I think what you're seeing is a lot of those things that were cut last year on paper but haven't been implemented yet," Haslam told reporters. "There's some painful things there."
Cuts have been masked until now with some $1.5 billion in one-time federal stimulus funds. But the money largely disappears beginning July 1, Haslam noted. While revenues have been coming back, Haslam said they cannot offset much of the previously made cuts so the state must "prioritize."
In the meantime, Haslam is trying to create elbow room in the budget for his priorities such as fully funding inflationary and student enrollment growth in the state's Basic Education Program formula for K-12 education. That comes to about $68 million.