Governor Phil Bredesen says he’s talking with legislators about changes in funding for K-12 education. But the governor says those changes won’t include cutting back on the amount of money he believes is needed and how he wants to raise it. The governor stood firmly behind his proposed 40-cent a pack cigarette tax increase, which he says should bring in an additional 200-million dollars targeted for education.
“Certainly, if it gets into the schools I certainly can be flexible about exactly what the formula is as to how it gets there or something like that. What I’m not interested in compromising in, is moving the 40 cents to 20 cents or 10 cents or …something like that. I think we ought to put a couple of hundred million dollars of new money …in education and that’s how we ought to do it.”
Bredesen was reacting to a statement by Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, who last week argued that no one knows yet if the cigarette tax is needed.
Meanwhile, Senate Education Chair Jamie Woodson says she wants the state to provide seventy-five percent of local teachers’ salaries, rather than the sixty-five percent now paid by state government. The governor has previously said he wouldn’t mind funding the higher level, but needed to take care of other issues first, such as funding for growth and at-risk students first.
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