Governor outlines budget priorities
NASHVILLE — As he prepares to hold hearings that will shape the first budget of his administration, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and his finance commissioner said Thursday their estimated $37.8 billion proposal will prioritize five key areas.
Finance commissioner Stuart McWhorter said the administration’s primary focus will be K-12 education, criminal justice, mental health, health care and rural economic development.
“Those will be areas of focus and the dollars will be focused in those areas as well,” he said.
Among the notable absences on Lee’s priority list is higher education, which in recent years has seen significant investments from former Gov. Bill Haslam.
But Lee said that does not necessarily mean there will be cuts to higher education.
“We’ll have opportunity for every group, including higher ed, to provide for opportunities for cuts but also what their desires are,” he said. “There will be some investments in higher ed, we know that already.”
When asked if he would take a similar approach to other recent governors, who outright discounted the idea of
making any cuts to K-12 education, Lee said, “Every department would have opportunities in places where you could cut and you could add at the same time.”
Lee spokeswoman Laine Arnold later clarified the governor was not eyeing an overall reduction for K-12 education.
Beyond possibly bolstering funding for their areas of primary focus, Lee and McWhorter said they plan on adding more to the state’s reserves, known as the Rainy Day Fund.
“We don’t anticipate anything negative coming down the pike, but we also are preparing for slow growth,” said McWhorter, who noted that economists “feel that is likely to occur.”
Although Lee’s first budget is set to be a slight increase over Haslam’s $37.8 billion final budget, overall, McWhorter said the administration did not have a goal of increasing the budget each year.
“Historically, it’s grown. That’s a function primarily of economic growth,” said McWhorter. “As long as Tennessee continues to attract spending — the state collects those dollars — it will just continue to grow.”
All 23 departments are supposed to outline their budget requests in the coming days. Lee said he will ask each state agency to identify 2 percent of their budgets available for cuts. Such cuts may not necessarily be made, Lee said.
Lee’s budget is expected to be finalized by Feb. 8. He is set to address the Legislature for his first State of the State address on March 4.
Contact Joel Ebert at jebert@ tennessean.com or 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.