NASHVILLE – Tennessee lawmakers on Friday sent the state’s 2010-11 budget to Gov. Phil Bredesen, ending weeks of negotiations, delays and politically charged finger-pointing.
The House voted unanimously 94-0 for the spending plan, which the Senate approved on a 30-3 vote late Thursday night.
Lawmakers continued working into Friday night on remaining bills. They will be back today as they struggled to end their annual session some five weeks after leaders said they would adjourn.
Earlier Friday, House Finance Committee Chairman Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, called the state’s spending plan “a budget that takes us through some of our most challenging times. … It is also a budget that provides a firm, fair and substantial fiscal plan.”
Administration officials estimate the sending plan at $29.9 billion, counting state and federal dollars as well as higher education.
Gov. Phil Bredesen this week helped break the budget impasse by prodding Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Kent Williams, an independent, into reaching a compromise. He said in a statement that he was “pleased” lawmakers “were able to resolve their differences.”
The budget, which takes effect July 1, “is a common-sense approach that ensures we live within our means,” Gov. Bredesen said, noting that while it protects funding for prekindergarten through the 12th grade it also “makes difficult spending cuts.”
The budget dips into reserves but maintains their levels at $429.2 million or, if a “core services reserve” is included, $615.4 million.
The budget includes a tax break for flood victims in Middle and West Tennessee, but under a comprehensive agreement between the House and Senate it deleted $16.1 million in one-time funding from increased federal stimulus funding, should it materialize for a fish hatchery, in House Speaker Kent Williams’ district.
Lt. Gov. Ramsey, who is running for governor, derided it as “pork barrel.”
The plan also restores about $4.5 million in recurring funding for the Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination, which provides grants to combat infant mortality. Republican senators sought to eliminate the program. But they later backed off as Democrats and Rep. Williams, an independent, charged they were being “hypocritical” for claiming they were “pro-life “while cutting funds for a program that officials say saves lives.
In response to questions, Rep. Fitzhugh said the state has cut $1.1 billion in spending in the current 2009-10 and the 2010-11 budget they were approving. That comes to about a 12 percent reduction in state government, he said, and a reduction of some 3,500 in the state work force.
The new budget provides for laying off at least 853 state workers and cuts 500 more vacant positions as the state continues to recover from the recession.
But for those who remain – and if revenues come in higher than originally projected – the budget will provide a one-time bump in longevity pay to help state worker, teachers and higher education employees with higher health care costs.
Workers will get an additional $50 per year of service except for employees of three years or less who will get $150.
The budget maintains a number of agricultural grants and $8.7 million in transfer tax revenues to land conservation funds or $500,000 for a study of state worker buyouts.
“We’re proud of the job Tennessee has done in weathering the Great Recession and the economic downturn,” Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, told colleagues prior to the vote late Thursday, adding that “over the past three years, if memory serves, we have aided in reducing the state budget by over $1.5 billion.”
But he said in comparison to other states, Tennessee government’s “house” is in “good order.”