Tennessee created a slideshow for a bond presentation in which it said that it would reduce costs in facilities management outsourcing, but Gov. Bill Haslam later walked back the verbiage, saying that it was a list of "potential things that can happen."NASHVILLE -- Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said today that his administration is "not trying to outsource the entire state."
The governor's comments came following a Times Free Press article showing Haslam and other officials included additional outsourcing, which would include most state building operations and maintenance functions to private companies, in a presentation earlier this month to Wall Street credit-rating agencies.
Haslam stressed today that his administration has not made a final decision on outsourcing but defended the proposal's inclusion.
"I think two or three things," Haslam told reporters after addressing a national conference of state treasurers here in Nashville. "First of all, remember, we're already doing some of that. So what we're trying to show them is here's the ways we're saving money.
"No. 2," Haslam continued, "the question that always comes from [credit rating agencies], is OK we see we see governments that have made cuts and adjustments because everybody knows the issue Tennessee has -- we're not going to raise taxes. And Medicaid and education costs keep going up -- so they realize to make that work we have to keep making cuts and their their questions always is what other things can you do?"
So the state shows them "kind of a list of potential things that can happen in the state where we can keep makimg adjustments to where we can keep making it work," he added.
Reminded that the presentation said the state "will" move on two items, including the additional outsourcing, Haslam said, "Here's the issue. From the very beginning on all this people have thought, 'Oh, they're going to outsource the entire state.' And a lot of media people have written a whole lot saying Tennessee is going to put the whole state up for sale which is so far from true.
"It's like I said, not even close to realistic," Haslam said. "Are there things we're always going to look at that says is the state doing this now and are we the best people to be doing that? Sure, we're always going to do that. And that's something we should be doing."