NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Bill Lee is exploring whether or not to use private consultants to help develop and implement his agenda.
The moves comes after Lee closed out his first legislative session by narrowly securing a win on his most high-profile priority involving a contentious voucher-like bill that has been threatened with lawsuits.
According to a proposal released earlier this month, Lee's administration is gauging interest in outsourcing how the top Republican executive could achieve his top priorities.
"A need has been identified by the state to contract, preferably with a single supplier or possibly a joint venture entity that can provide management consulting services in various subject areas," the four-page document states, which was posted to the Department of General Services' website on May 1.
The proposal currently just seeks responses from management consulting firms who might be interested in the project. The goal is to determine who might be qualified to take on the effort. A dollar amount has not yet been advertised and neither has information about the length of the contract.
However, the preliminary paperwork suggests Lee's office is seeking one or multiple consultant groups to provide input on a broad range of topics that the Republican campaigned on in the buildup to the November election. Those include coming up with ways to "provide affordable healthcare to the uninsured population," as well as increasing access to rural health care.
The proposal also wants consultants to submit suggestions on how they would "combat the opioid crisis," address criminal justice reform, assist in economic development in rural counties, and conduct a feasibility study of implementing "zero-based budgeting" for state departments.
Zero-based budgeting is a budgeting process where every line item must be approved rather approving changes from the previous year - essentially requiring state departments to start their budgets from scratch each year. Supporters say this gives greater accountability to how each dollar is spent. Yet others counter the method can be quite costly and time-consuming, as well as potentially complicates the budget-setting process.
"It's pretty routine to do requests for information for governor's priorities that require more research," said Laine Arnold, Lee's spokeswoman, when asked about why the governor's office had put out the proposal.
Arnold added that the administration had budgeted for the contract in this year's budget, but the project was still in the early stages.
Consulting firms have until May 15 to respond. According to the proposal, responses will not be made public until after the contract process. Should the state choose not to continue with the procurement process, though, the responses will be considered confidential.
Lee, a Republican businessman, was elected as governor in November after running as a first-time political candidate. Lee campaigned on being a political outsider and has since often repeated that growing government should not be the answer to solving people's problems.