BUDGET CUTSHere are some of budget cuts that will take effect July 1:Board of Probation and Parole• Loses 19 positions, including six filled positions. Savings: $1.96 millionEnvironment and Conservation• Public golf courses at Old Stone State Park in Manchester and T.O. Fuller State Park in Memphis close in mid-September. Nine positions cut. Savings: $892,000• Groundwater Protection Division loses 28 positions. Savings: $1.2 million.• Other cuts: $4.89 millionCorrection Department• Cut 82 positions, including 10 administrative jobs. Savings: $5.24 millionEconomic and Community Development• Eliminate local planning offices, cut 69 positions. Savings: $3.98 millionEducation• Cut 120 positions, reduce coordinated school health program. Savings: $9.7 million.Health• Cut diabetes program. Savings: $2.6 millionIntellectual and Developmental Disabilities• Cut 615 positions, including 587 at Clover Bottom and Greene Valley development centers; limit home-based nursing service; trim personal assistants. Savings: $44.36 millionSafety Department• Eliminate 18 positions, including nine vacant trooper positions. Savings: $919,000Children’s Services• Close state-run group homes for juvenile delinquents; eliminate 236 positions departmentwide. Savings: $12.1 millionSources: 2011-12 state budget; Finance and Administration Department; Office of Legislative Budget Analysis
NASHVILLE-There will be fewer people protecting Tennessee’s groundwater, patrolling its roads or taking care of its most vulnerable people in the budget year that starts July 1.
State lawmakers approved dozens of cost-saving measures in the $30.8 billion budget that awaits Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s signature. Among the cuts are home-based nursing for people with intellectual disabilities, probation and parole officers and school-based health programs. The budget abolishes 236 positions in the Department of Children’s Services. It will close seven government-run group homes for juvenile delinquents and outsource their operations to the private sector.
Haslam’s budget eliminates 62 planners in the state Department of Economic and Community Development who help rural cities and counties with local projects. He and ECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty argue local governments ought to pay for such services.
Haslam pushed for many of the cuts and the GOP-controlled Legislature went along as state revenues recover slowly from the recession.