Haslam: Outsourcing touted to show fiscal responsibility

Associated Press

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said Monday that when he touted outsourcing management of state facilities in recent presentations to New York bond-rating agencies, he was showing the state is being fiscally responsible.

The Republican governor spoke to reporters following a speech to the National Association of State Treasurers annual conference in Nashville.

Haslam has been heavily criticized for considering outsourcing management of more state-owned buildings.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press was provided a copy of the PowerPoint document that Haslam and top state officials used in their Oct. 9-10 pitch to Wall Street experts reviewing the state’s financial picture in advance of Tennessee issuing new bonds.

A one-page section of the document called “Looking Ahead” cited two specific initiatives “to reduce costs and improve productivity.”

One is energy management. The other is “Facilities Management Outsourcing.”

Nashville’s WTVF-TV reported last month an administration timetable that cited a July 1 date for outsourcing facility management and operations of most state-owned property, including colleges, state parks, prisons and more.

Yet Haslam and administration officials have said no decision has been made on outsourcing.

The governor told reporters Monday that outsourcing was touted in the document to show the bond-rating agencies “ways we’re saving money.”

“The question that always comes from them is, ‘OK, we see governments that have made cuts and adjustments ... what other things can you do?” Haslam said. “So one of the things we try to do is show them kind of a list of potential things that can happen in the state where we can keep making those adjustments to our budget.”

The administration made headlines last month when it was reported three part-time consultants in a new state office that’s heavily focused on outsourcing some government services stand to be paid at a combined annual rate of $612,000. Two of them are outsourcing advocates who co-authored a book on the subject.

Haslam added that much of the discussion on outsourcing has been fueled by media reports that have blown the issue out of proportion.

“A lot of media people have written ... things saying Tennessee is getting ready to put the whole state up for sale, which is so far from true,” Haslam said.

Discussion of outsourcing has caused a ruckus among state government and higher education workers, as well as many Democratic and some Republican legislators.

House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, told The Associated Press that outsourcing is not always fiscally responsible because “the services the public require sometimes fall outside that contract.”

“I think we need to sort of tread lightly on that, if at all, and make sure that we do the best to provide the particular services that the taxpayers pay for,” he said.