Tennessee House and Senate pass a slimmed-down budget due to flattening tax revenues

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — $52.8 billion — that's how much money state lawmakers had to work with this year, as they crafted the budget. If that number sounds a little low, it's because it's about 10 billion less than last year's budget.

"We’re a middle-class family. That’s how we budget. We don’t drive the Cadillac but we get to where we’re going in the Chevrolet," said Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, and the House Finance Chair.

State budget experts recommended a slimmer budget this year due to flattening state tax revenues. "We could not fund everything," said Rep. Hazlewood during her budget presentation on the House floor Thursday.

The path to passing the state budget, wasn't always a smooth ride Thursday, as Democratic lawmakers pushed back on certain aspects of the budget, including millions of dollars in refunds to corporations through the proposed Franchise and Excise Tax rebate. "We are buying a handful of secret lists of CEO of Ferrari's. We cannot do that and call ourselves fiscally responsible," said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville.

But when you kick the tires on all the funding, you'll still find plenty of funding increases for public education. "$260 million additional this year, we are funding our public schools," said Hazlewood. "It funds teacher raises."

Lawmakers also allocated resources for pressing healthcare needs. "Millions of dollars to go towards rural health initiatives, millions of dollars to go towards children’s hospitals across the state of Tennessee," said Rep. David Hawk, R-Greeneville.

The budget also saw increases for public safety, including security grants for houses of worship and 60 new Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers. "Having more troopers on the roads, on our streets, it has to be able to improve public safety," said Hazlewood, later in a news conference. "More law enforcement means less law-breaking."

But Democrats pushed back on that notion. "In a state where we’ve had an unprecedented amount of violence, particularly gun violence, instead of funding programs to prevent that, we funded programs to incarcerate people longer. It’s well proven fact, you can’t incarcerate your way out of crime," said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, who also serves as Senate Minority Leader.

Overall, Democrats claim Republicans put the state on a bumpy road with this budget. "We didn’t fund the grocery tax, folks in our district still dealing with housing insecurity, didn’t fund a crime lab, didn’t do all these things that could improve the quality of life for people," said Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis.

They also say they were floored when they discovered the Governor's universal voucher plan, which appears to be destined for defeat this year, was still funded in the budget. "It’s a lot of things we could have done with those dollars," said Rep. Karen Camper, D-Memphis, who also serves as House Minority Leader.

"Those dollars will just stay in the budget, they will be there when we come back next year," said Hazlewood.

Republicans admit the limited budget is not the path they wanted, but they think it's the right direction for the state. "We do what we do well with the dollars we have available," said Hazlewood.